Spanish design brand Nagami Design, which specialises in robotic 3D printing, is leading an initiative to accelerate the production of personal protection masks to protect local and global medical staff against COVID-19.

-text by the authors

Since its outbreak, the Coronavirus pandemic that is shaking the entire world has registered more than 400.000 cases to date, hitting hardest in China, Italy, the USA, and Spain – in particular Madrid its surrounding provinces such as Castilla y León, where Nagami Design is based.

Hospitals across the global are running at beyond maximum capacity and their need for safe medical equipment has grown exponentially in the past few days. To speed up the supply of essential items such as masks and life support machines, manufacturers are using 3D printers and other digital manufacturing tools, and are forming a global network where on-demand production can be actioned locally.

Nagami Design has put its furniture production on hold to focus exclusively on the production of robotic 3D printed COVID-19 Masks based on the Prusa model, which is open source and can be reproduced by desktop 3D printers.

By designing a specific robotic version of the model and thanks to its extrusion technology, Nagami Design is printing around 500 COVID-19 Masks per day — or one mask every five minutes — around seven times faster than a desktop 3D printer, and the company is working around the clock in collaboration with the entire local community.

“This is by far the most important project we’ve ever worked on, but also one we wish we’d never had to start. Our generation has knowledge and digital tools that have become truly meaningful. There is no product to sell, no market to compete in. This is a challenge for all of us, and we’d like to encourage everyone with tools of any kind to reach out and contribute to helping bring safety back into our world”, assert Manuel Jimenez García, Miki Jimenez García and Ignacio Viguera Ochoa, the founders of Nagami Design.

Nagami Design is currently focusing its efforts on Ávila and Hospital Provincial de Ávila, the city where its factory is located, and is planning to expand this week to other regions such as Madrid and La Rioja. Inquiries are arriving from various other countries, such as the USA, Italy, France, UAE, India, UK, Denmark, and many more.

The masks are produced through robotic extrusion in a layer-by-layer FDM (fused deposition modelling). The material used is a PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol) which is durable, tough, 100% recyclable, and has robust chemical resistance and high-impact strength.

“3D printing has emerged as the ultimate tool for local manufacturing, reducing the production chain to the bare minimum. With COVID-19 emergency, this technology provides the opportunity to efficiently produce affordable tools, which are now essential to help save lives. This is indisputably the most important challenge we have faced as designers and makers, but also the best use of design intuition and technology”, affirm Nagami Design’s founders.

About Nagami

Nagami is a design brand that explores the future of product design in a new technological era. Founded in Ávila (Spain), in 2016 by Manuel Jimenez García, Miki Jimenez García and Ignacio Viguera Ochoa, the company brings 3D printing and robotic manufacturing to large-scale products, with a wide range of customisation possibilities.

Research and innovation are at the core of Nagami’s projects, which are developed in collaboration with internationally renowned architects, designers and artists such as Zaha Hadid Architects, Ross Lovegrove, Daniel Widrig and Davide Quayola, as well as with emerging talents, who can embrace new technologies to materialise groundbreaking products.

The brand crafts every detail, from early conception of a product, to the software that brings it to life, exploring new ways of creating furniture and environments that push the limits of imagination to unknown territories.

The brand’s signature products include: VoxelChair v1.0, Estrat Chair, Nobu Chair, Nital Vase and Canaria Casing — casing for an oversized prototype for Canaria Ltd, created as part of the 2016 NASA Space Apps Challenge. Nagami has participated in events and exhibitions such as “Mutations-Créations / Imprimer le monde” (2017) at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, with the project VoxelChair v1.0, which recently became part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Products

  • Estrat 2.0, 2020, chair
  • AirChaise, 2019, chaise longue
  • Nectary, 2018, modular system
  • Robotica TM by Ross Lovegrove, 2018, chair
  • Bow by Zaha Hadid Architects, 2018, chair
  • Rise by Zaha Hadid Architects, 2018, chair
  • Peeler by Daniel Widrig, 2018, chair
  • Voxel v1.0 by Manuel Jiménez García and Gilles Retsin for UCL Design Computation Lab, 2017, chair
  • Nital Vase, 2017, vase
  • Canaria Casing for Canaria Ltd, 2017, casing
  • Estrat Chair, 2017, chair
  • Nobu Chair, 2017, chair

Founders of Nagami

Manuel Jiménez García is co-founder and principal of madMdesign, a computational design practice based in London, and co-founder of Nagami, a robotic manufacturing and design brand startup based in Spain. His work has been exhibited worldwide, at venues such as the Centre Pompidou (Paris) and the Royal Academy of Arts (London). Alongside his practice, Manuel is a lecturer at The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL (London). He is programme director of MSc/MRes Architectural Computation (AC), and co-founder of Design Computation Lab. He also runs Research Cluster 4 at the Architectural Design MArch (AD) and curates Plexus, a multidisciplinary lecture series based on computational design.

Miki Jiménez Garcia is co-founder of Nagami, and holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the European University of Madrid and a Master’s in Parametric Design from the ControlMAD Advanced Design Center. He has worked in local studios and as a collaborator in international competitions. He has also worked with the Architectural Association of London as assistant at the AA Visiting School, Madrid, and with The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL in London in research projects related to digital architecture and 3D printing. As co-founder of Nagami Design, he continuously focuses research in the field of architecture and new manufacturing methods towards large-scale 3D printing applied to design.

Ignacio Viguera Ochoa is co-founder of Nagami. He has worked with the Architectural Association of London as assistant at the AA Visiting School, Madrid, and with The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL in London in research projects related to digital architecture and 3D printing, and with the European University of Madrid as collaborator in the Biennial of Urbanism and Architecture of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. As co-founder of Nagami Design, he continuously focuses research in the field of architecture and new manufacturing methods towards large-scale 3D printing applied to design.

Facts & Credits
Nagami Design Team  Manuel Jiménez García, Miguel Angel Jiménez García, Ignacio Viguera Ochoa, Alejandro Nieto Jiménez, Luis de la Parra Garcia, Patricia San Segundo Galan, India Carazo, Anna Szonyi
Project Collaborators and sponsors
3D printing support  CV19_Fab_Avila
Technology support  ABB
Rubber Bands sponsor  Merceria Padilla, Merceria Mordissko, Merceria Ysali, Comunidad china abulense
Transparency Film sponsor  Tecnipapel, Imagen, Libreria letras, Libreria Atenea, App Las Damas, Hiper Office, Politecnica de Avila, Bricoaguilar
Printing Material sponsor  Politecnica de Ávila, Jose Luis Jimenez
Plastic Filament  Sicnova
Packaging  Blueboxes Smart Wash, Esembal
Tool support  Mecanizados Jimar, Mecanizados Castilla
Rural deliveries  Protección Civil de Ávila


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