Rapid Manufacturing AG develops 3D printed glove remover for COVID-19 protection

Swiss 3D printing service bureau Rapid Manufacturing AG, together with Swiss creative agency Atoll and Zurich-based Pragma Engineering, developed a simple solution to address the issue of disposable glove removal: a 3D printed glove remover. This is something many of us have become quite familiar with during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic: personal protective equipment has become part of our daily lives in dealing with the risk of contamination.

Not just doctors and healthcare professionals: now restaurant staff and employees in the food and cosmetic industries, even regular people have, have to wear a variety of PPE. Along with fasce masks and shields, disposable gloves are a big part of it, however the risk of contamination still exists, especially while taking them off.

The solution presented by Rapid Manufacturing AG has been made available as a free to download CAD or STL file (available here). Alternatively an SLS 3D printed version can be purchased by those without access to 3D printing resources.

To remove a glove, the hand wrist must be placed against the downward pointing tongue of the product. There, the tongue of the remover has to be slided into the glove between the hand palm and glove cuff. If the hands are being pulled upwards, the gloves will just fall off. The glove remover can be hung on a wall or on a service car bar – horizontally or vertically. The concept consists of three modular items which can be used for hanging and displaying the product.

Rapid Manufacturing AG produced several prototypes in their high precision laser sintering process on EOS systems and smoothed the surfaces. The result was a non-breakable design objects in a sanitizer approved polyamide. Another “weapon” in the global fight against the Coronavirus.