The Industry Continues to Lend a Helping Hand

Innovation, Manufacturing, and Philanthropy Mix to Address New Reality

May 7, 2020 12:22:28 PM

By Christine Dunne

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The office technology and production printing sectors continue to use innovation, manufacturing, and philanthropy to help medical professionals, patients, workers, and the general public during the COVID-19 crisis. Below are some recently announced efforts.

Source: Wikimedia.org

Face Protection

Brother International Corporation is donating up to 100 industrial sewing machines to support efforts to make personal protective equipment.
DocuWare is loaning a 3D printer and materials to an employee so he can produce face shield fasteners for healthcare workers in Germany.
Gardiner Graphics Group is manufacturing up to 20,000 face visors per day, supplying material to other companies looking to produce this equipment, and providing do-it-yourself visor kits that workers can assemble upon delivery.
Global Office has delivered over 1,200 face shields (and over 1,500 meals) to a variety of hospitals and clinics in the San Francisco Bay area.
Kyocera Document Solutions, Inc. in Japan is shipping protective masks to employees.
Massivit is 3D printing and donating thousands of face shields to medical teams at local hospitals and enabling customers and distributors to make and supply face shields in their countries.
Portugal-based MTEX NS is producing protective masks and selling them for €1.49 apiece.
Premier Paper is supplying South Wales printer Lexon with enough material to produce 10,000 protective visors for the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.
Speedscreen is making and donating thousands of face visors for use in health services in the United Kingdom.
Windles Group Factor is producing face visors for nurses, doctors, care workers, and other public-facing workers in the United Kingdom.
Xerox is partnering with clothing manufacturer Hickey Freeman to produce medical-grade face masks (that include printer filters for additional protection) to donate to a local health services organization.
Y Soft is 3D printing around 500 face shields per day to help address the lack of protective equipment for doctors and other workers.

Hand Sanitizer Production

Xerox is starting to produce hospital-grade hand sanitizer, with the goal of producing about 140,000 gallons by June.

Health Research and Development

Konica Minolta’s Ambry Genetics division is developing a COVID-19 detection test as well as working with leading academic and corporate partners to evaluate technologies for virus antibody detection.
Konica Minolta’s Invicro division is participating in a major pharmaceutical company’s clinical trial for COVID-19 treatment.
Ricoh is starting to market a new bioprinting technology that could be used for COVID-19 testing.

Remote Education and Working

HP has created a consortium to provide immediate relief and printed curriculum to US school districts that is committed to donate $8 million in products and grants for learning and local communities worldwide, as well as supplied a variety of free online courses and resources globally.
Konica Minolta’s education practice is holding training to teach teachers how to use G-Suite and Office 365 to facilitate remote learning.
Kyocera Document Solutions America has launched a free eBook for professionals, managers, and employers on remote working.
Sharp Business USA’s new Work from Home page includes a variety of tips and tricks for customers.
Y Soft is providing 3D printing lesson plans (including free standard lessons) as well as a new 3D/2D printing education bundle to help save schools money.

Signage

Canon Solutions America customer Thomas Printworks is printing thousands of banners for local restaurants to promote and ease their transition to curbside carryout.
Time Printing solutions is producing signage for use in hospitals and businesses to encourage social distancing and hand washing.

Food-Related Donations

Antalis Packaging donated 1,000 packaging boxes to be used for food packages for key National Health Service workers in the United Kingdom.
The Gordon Flesch Charitable Foundation donated $14,000 to various food banks across the Midwest to help with increased demand for services due to COVID-19.

Other

HP is offering various forms of financial relief to channel partners worldwide.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. is using its MOBOTIX thermal cameras to monitor for employees and visitors with abnormal temperatures.
Xerox helped prepare the USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy as they deployed in New York City and Los Angeles to help with COVID-19 relief efforts.

These activities complement other innovations, manufacturing initiatives, and philanthropic efforts in place to help slow the spread of the coronavirus and enable society to adapt to the new reality. Many of these endeavors were not designed to generate revenue and profit, but rather to aid society during this difficult time.

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