The ABC Intubation Enclosure

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

Atlanta Beats Covid (ABC) has been working with some incredible healthcare workers at Emory University Hospital to develop an intubation enclosure. There are many variants out there, but ours has been developed with a particular emphasis on:
- portability
- ease of storage
- ease of sterilization / prevention of contamination
- low cost manufacture

To meet these requirements we present a flat-pack structure that uses 4 polycarbonate panels, 8 plastic snap-fit connectors, and 2 plastic portholes for the attachment of disposable sterile sleeves. Polycarbonate (nominal 4.5mm) is selected over other plastics due to its resistance to all common cleaning fluids (acrylic reacts to alcohol), its stiffness, and widespread availability. At roughly 23" square, the panels can be cut from commonly-found 2x2' sheets, or all 4 nested onto a 4x4' sheet. We recommend cutting with a waterjet or CNC router, but it could also be cut manually in theory (laser cutting polycarbonate at this thickness is not feasible). The snap-fit connectors and portholes can be 3D printed or molded (mold CAD coming soon). For 3D printing we recommend ABS with acetone smoothing, or another filament with good mechanical properties, although PLA does work surprisingly fine - see image for print settings that work well (print on the end to ensure layers lines are not along a snap axis). Also incorporated into the panels are hand-holds and slots for accommodating tubes that may already be present when the enclosure is assembled.

The all-up cost (exc. tax, without volume discounts) for this build breaks down as follows:
- 1/2 of a 4x8' sheet of .177" polycarb = $73
- roughly 260g of 3D printer filament = $6
= TOTAL of $80

Note: It goes without saying that this design or variants similar to it are free to use. Please share it far and wide, and we'd love to hear your feedback or remixes.