During the pandemic, the community of element14 with its more than 750,000 members, encouraged innovation in several strategic areas to combat the virus to create germ-fighting solutions, provide 3D printers to produce visors and masks, and share open source instructions to help provide additional life-saving machines.
"Engineers develop solutions to solve problems, and our community of innovators is no different," said Dianne Kibbey, global community manager element14 of Farnell. "We are so proud of the way our community has come together in the face of this pandemic to support each other and provide the supplies and solutions needed to help people stay safe."
Community initiatives
Already in the spring months the Fighting Germs Design Challenge, which saw the birth of a series of projects to prevent the spread of COVID-19: virtual non-contact buttons, a face mask detection system, a non-contact temperature control. To help hospitals deal with ventilator shortages, element14 has also shared an open source, locally producible ventilator: in this innovative design, a Raspberry Pi 4 controls a Trinamic Motion and motor driver ICs that regulate a fan corresponding to constantly monitored data.
You might also be interested in: