3D printing of nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 diagnose: Past and current trends

Aluri Manoj; Monami Bhuyan; Swarup Raj Banik; Mamilla Ravi Sankar

doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2020.11.505

3D printing of nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 diagnose: Past and current trends

Mater Today Proc. 2021:44:1361-1368. doi: 10.1016/j.matpr.2020.11.505. Epub 2020 Nov 25.

Authors

Aluri Manoj¹, Monami Bhuyan², Swarup Raj Banik³, Mamilla Ravi Sankar⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies-Basar, Nirmal 504107, India.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Assam Engineering College, Guwahati 781013, Assam, India.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Silchar 788010, Silchar, India.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Tirupati 517506, India.

Abstract

The current technological advancements in emerging 3D printing technologies are indeed propitious. To date, ground-breaking 3D printing technologies are used in automobile, aerospace, clothing, pharma, and biomedical industries by creating pre-requisite engineered and tailored end-user products reaching standard sets. 3D printing is also becoming a crucial technology in support of enhanced health care and general emergency response since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the world is facing a significant lack of medicinal supplies, manufactures are struggling to fulfill demands due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The decline in the diagnostic testing kits supply chained to increased interest in 3D printed Nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs. This article has reviewed and studied the sensitivity of the NP swabs and various NP swab designs. The process of different 3D printing technologies that are employed to address the swab shortages during COVID-19 is explained in detail. The paper ends with the conclusions drawn from the literature review.

Keywords: 3D printed NP swabs; 3D printing; COVID-19; NP swabs; RT-PCR; SARS-CoV-2.