Within less than 24 hours of the announcement, hundreds of requests were received for protective visors produced in record time by Weerg and PressUP and offered to hospitals at no charge. “The call center we set up is always busy, but we were able to respond to the call of the Italian Civil Protection to which we will deliver the last 500 protective visors that are already finished”, explains Vincenzo Cirimele, CEO PressUP who immediately embraced the idea of Matteo Rigamonti, Weerg’s founder, who adds: “We are managing the social networks. Through the numerous sharing, the news has made the tour of Italy in a few hours and we continue to receive requests, many from hospitals and nursing homes”. From the dozens of posts on Facebook emerges all the excitement of the moment, the fear of those on the front line. “We must protect our staff,” they write. From Weerg and PressUP, therefore, starts a heartfelt appeal to all makers in Italy who also have a small 3D printer. “We ask those who have this equipment or digital milling machines to join us. We can share all the details of the project in opensource so that we can meet the demand that has overwhelmed us,” adds Cirimele. The two entrepreneurs are therefore the spokesmen of the need, now more than ever, to create productive networks, with the optimistic vision that in the near future these collaborations can contribute to restart the economy when the emergency is over.
The project of the protective visors is the result of a series of tests carried out based on the many prototypes present online that Weerg and PressUP have adapted also according to the advice of health personnel who collaborated in the development of the device. “By virtually combining our 3D Printing department with PressUP’s digital production and logistics, we were able to produce the first prototypes in just a few days and start up an efficient production line between Venice and Rome in record time,” explains Rigamonti.
A project, therefore, that stems from the virtuosity of Made in Italy entrepreneurship. Weerg – a revolutionary Italian e-commerce company offering CNC machining and 3D printing online, with the largest installation of HP Multi Jet Fusion 5210 industrial 3D printers, produces the visor structures in nylon PA12 which are then sent to the PressUP production site, on the outskirts of Rome. Here, at the premises of the Roman tech-company leader in online printing services, the screens are cut from 0.5 mm PET sheets using computerized cutters, the instructions for assembly are printed and shipments are handled.