BATH, Maine – General Dynamics Bath Iron Works is using 3-D printers to increase availability of hand sanitizer for our employees. 
Working with the Facilities Department, BIW’s Advanced Concepts team used a 3-D printer to produce a device that allows the hand sanitizer dispensers that are distributed throughout the shipyard to be refilled. The dispensers contain bags which are usually disposable but because of extremely high demand for the product, the bags are harder to obtain than the sanitizer itself. The team designed a device that removes the dispenser nozzle and serves as a port-fitting adaptor to refill them from industrial containers.
BIW is partnering with Hardshore Distilling Company in Portland, which has converted a portion of its operation to manufacturing hand sanitizer. Distillery employees are refilling the empty dispenser bags and returning them to BIW for use by shipbuilders.
“One of our biggest challenges has been obtaining packaging supplies to deliver hand sanitizer,” said Jordan Milne, founder and distiller of Hardshore Distilling Company. “Bath Iron Works helped us find ways to reuse packaging assets that already existed and therefore provide a solution to supply their team with the needed hand sanitizer.”
The BIW team also designed a version of the refilling device for the type of dispenser used at MaineHealth, the state’s largest integrated health care provider, enabling hospitals to refill the ones they have.
Photos: A diagram of the refilling device; A Hardshore Distilling Company employee monitors alcohol distilling in the company’s 1,200-liter copper still. The alcohol is used to make hand sanitizer.