Every idea, every project, needs specific skills and solutions. There are no solutions that fit everyone, each client is unique, services and strategy are tailor-made is the credo of Italian start-up Isinnova from Brescia.
When Cristian Fracassi heard about the shortage of valves used in respirators at his local hospital in Chiari (Brescia), he set out to help.
The founder of Isinnova, a startup with a staff of 14 people, offered his company’s services to help ease the shortfall of equipment that has been in huge demand since the coronavirus outbreak struck Italy.
“We were told the hospital was desperately looking for more valves. They’re called Venturi valves and are impossible to find at the moment, production can’t keep up with demand,” said Fracassi, a 36-year-old engineer.
Venturi valves are used to connect oxygen masks to respirators.
"He and his collaborators went to the hospital in Chiari and after asking the manufacturing company for the 3D files to print them and receiving a negative reply - in fact they also received threats of patent infringement - the piece was measured, listed, redrawn, then printed in 3D with three techniques (FDM, SLS; SLA)", Temporelli, physicist and scientific divulger, explains
Fracassi and his team were able to replicate the valves using a 3D printer at Isinnova’s headquarters.
The company’s products range from hi-tech luggage for fashion brand Gucci to a special paint it is currently developing to survive temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius.
“When we heard about the shortage, we got in touch with the hospital immediately. We printed some prototypes, the hospital tested them and told us they worked,” Fracassi said. “So we printed 100 valves and I delivered them personally.”
As production costs for the additive manufactured valves are only a fraction (around one euro) of the costs that the hospital pays normally - ten thousand euros - for a valve the founder not only hand delivered one hundred valves but also did not charge the hospital anything for his services as he considers his donation the least he can do in such circumstances.
www.isinnova.it
