Published 21:52 IST, February 19th 2020
Shanghai company donates 3D-printed wards to Hubei hospital to contain coronavirus
A Shanghai-based company donated 15 quarantine wards, made using 3D printing technology, to a hospital in Hubei province to contain the spread of coronavirus
A Shanghai-based company donated 15 quarantine wards, made using 3D printing technology, to a hospital in Hubei province to contain the spread of coronavirus. Xiang Xinghua, the deputy party chief of Xianning city, had reportedly approached the Winsun Building Technique Co Ltd after the company chairman showed willingness on a WeChat post to donate such wards.
According to Winsun, the first batch of 15 portable wards were installed at the Xianning Central Hospital and put to use last week. The company has now started working on the second batch of the donation under which it plans to print 200 sets of wards to contain the epidemic in the area.
A single quarantine room can be printed in two hours and one printing machine can produce 15 rooms in a day. Each quarantine ward comes with an area of 10 square meters and a height of 2.8 meters in which two beds can be easily kept. The base cost of the printed rooms is around 28,000 yuan ($3,999).
Earthquake-resistant ward
The rooms are created using concrete and recycled solid waste and have passed the environmental impact assessment. The wards, after adopting a shell structure, meet required standards for heat preservation and isolation and can withstand extreme environments including strong winds and even earthquakes.
The wards are mobile and easy to set up and can be instantly run on power supply. The material is concrete and recycled solid waste that have passed the environmental impact assessment. Because Yingchuang has more than 300 national patented technologies, the quality is reliable.
According to the latest report, 1,749 new cases of coronavirus infections and 136 more deaths have been confirmed, taking the total death toll because of the deadly virus to 2,004. While most of the cases are from Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, other countries, including Japan and the Philippines, have also now reported deaths related to COVID-19.
Updated 21:52 IST, February 19th 2020