Injection moulding machines are being used to produce some things but I think you might be surprised at the total overall productivity of the home grade 3D printing effort.
The local makerspace groups have been at it in a systematic way for over two weeks picking people up as they go. People have been knocking these out at a rate of 5 a day (with very low end gear) to over 40 a day at the higher end. With a hundred people across the county knocking them out, at an absolute low that's about 500 produced a day, 3500 this week.
While the group doesn't have a tally running because the yare being shipped off for collection then (being here i'm IT staff obviously and have worked in the local NHS trust) so I know that our low production estimate has produced more masks than the total number of NHS staff in our county.
Which is sort of my point; at the moment the NHS have been done, the care staff in care homes have them (where they have appropriate cleaning measures for the masts in place) and people are talking about if production ought to be going to supermarket staff. By the time a few plants in China have produced a worthwhile number to be flown across the planet in another weeks time then who's going to be needing them?
The situation might be different in America since I suspect there is going to be less local support for the "for profit" businesses that form their healthcare system.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
