3D printed soap ring to use during activities away from home

During the global health pandemic, many initiatives emerged to prevent the spread of the virus. In particular, additive manufacturing helped to reduce the spread thanks to some properties offered by the technology, such as copper 3D printing on high touch surfaces to stop contamination. New ideas are still being explored to try to reduce the number of cases of COVID-19. One of them is a ring of soap that you can take with you outside the house so that you can wash your hands when there are no washrooms or soap nearby. This original concept could become a temporary solution in emergency cases.

Many times, we find ourselves doing activities in public spaces and we don’t have a suitable place to clean our hands. Thus, the industrial designer Sebastián Granotich decided to develop and launch “The new diamond”, an object that would be safe and would allow its daily use during the current situation. He chose to present it in a Wikifactory contest, where he was looking for the development of a product that would encourage social distancing and promote health measures. After making his proposal and winning the contest, Granotich said: “The answer I got was that, although there were other projects that were more complete, they liked its simplicity for using an object that everyone knows“.

The new diamond

Can anyone make their own soap ring?

To make your own soap ring, all you need is an FDM 3D printer for simple thermoplastics, although, if possible, it is recommended to use anti-virus copper plastic. The cost of the part will depend on the printer and the material used (PLA, ABS, HIPS, Nylon, etc.). To start the manufacturing process, you will have to choose the size of the ring with respect to your finger size and thus download the appropriate STL file. After passing it through a laminator, you will only have to print it and that’s it! Once you have the ring structure, you will have to get a piece of soap to place it on the model. There are many soap formats available in the market or artisan producers that make small pieces suitable for the ring. Although if you can’t access any of them, you can create your own piece using a mold.

Once you have the piece of soap you must follow a series of steps to complete the ring, detailed on their website. Once the soap is inside the ring, it is ready to be used – you have your “new diamond” ready! The idea is that the user can determine the color of the plastic they want for the ring and combine it with the color of the soap they will use.The soap ring has an economical design, easy to create to fit your size and without the need of supports during the printing process. Now you can clean your hands even if there is no washroom near you, as long as you have some water with you. To find more information about this project and to download the 3D models, you can visit the website HERE.

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