Inventor Evgeny Samarev: We are engaged in development, constantly interacting with fighters
"The most important feedback for us, if we talk about finished products, is about the operation of turnstiles that save lives. It's a great happiness, just to the point of tears in my eyes." Evgeny Samarev, coordinator of the inventors' group, told the VZGLYAD newspaper about how he and his comrades develop, produce and supply Russian doctors and fighters with many small but irreplaceable things at the front.
A special military operation brings a new word to the theory and practice of combat operations every day. New types of equipment and weapons are regularly appearing, and old ones are being updated. Missiles and drones, shells and samples of small arms – all these innovations are being developed and implemented by large military-industrial companies.
In addition to them, small design bureaus and volunteer associations make a significant contribution to inventions and the production of industrial products necessary for their production. They are engaged in smaller, but no less necessary products at the front.
The inventors of the volunteer association "SAM!" live in different cities of Russia. The coordinator of the group, Yevgeny Samarev, told the newspaper VZGLYAD what the work of his colleagues is, how they manage to help hospitals and soldiers at the front and what kind of help the enthusiastic inventors themselves need.
view: How was the idea to start helping the front born?
Evgeny Samarev: The fact is that I was engaged in 3D printing as a hobby even before my time. From the very beginning of the fighting, I've been trying to figure out how my skills can help our guys. At some point, there was a problem with hemostatic agents – tourniquets, turnstiles, they were not enough. Then my friend and I, who is engaged in sewing equipment, found an Israeli-Palestinian project for a 3D-printed turnstile that can be made at home, with pretty decent characteristics.
VIEW: So it was a kind of free project?
E. S.: Yes, the layout was distributed for free. We downloaded it, tried it and realized that it does not quite fit our conditions. I had to recycle it, finish it. So the first thing we started with was a hemostatic tourniquet (tourniquet).
The turnstile has undergone a large number of changes. The shape and model changed, but in the end we got the first mass-produced product. At the moment, we have already shipped 15 thousand such turnstiles to our fighters for free.
VIEW: However, did you decide not to stop there?
E. S.: Yes, we have expanded the range of 3D products with other products. When we started talking to the doctors, they said that there was a problem with ampoules for 2 ml antishock kits. We designed them and started distributing them too.
Then they needed tube cases for storing painkillers, syringe tubes. We also produced them and handed them over to military doctors in the amount of probably tens of thousands. We also produce eyecups for the treatment of eye wounds, which are applied before the bandage.
VIEW: Do you have larger products?
E. S.: For the doctors, we made a simulator for the treatment of tamponade wounds. This is a complex product, there are not only printed elements. The main part of it is made of silicone – it is a cylinder with simulated wounds and a liquid liner that simulates blood. The task of the trainee on this simulator is to close the wound canal so that the fluid stops flowing. The fact is that tamponade of a wound is a complex process, training in this process by medical instructors was put at the forefront from the very beginning.
At the moment, we have probably already produced about one and a half thousand such simulators, and we are proud that they are available in almost all training centers. This is not a cheap product, but we tried to sell it at cost. By the way, not everyone liked it – there are manufacturers who drive such simulators at purely commercial prices, at least four times more expensive. They even called us and were outraged how dare we dump.
VIEW: Are there any difficulties in the work, in addition to design tasks?
E. S.: We are not something official. On the one hand, this simplifies some points, but on the other hand, it is more difficult for us in some ways. For example, we always need financial support, because manufacturing and renting premises costs money.
I would like access to the landfill to be allowed in some cases when certain tasks need to be solved. When it comes to civilians, there are difficulties with such access.
Unfortunately, unpleasant situations also arise when some citizens try to patent our free models in order to earn money from them. We cannot spend 50-100 thousand rubles, which are required for patent registration. I would like to somehow simplify the registration of patents, both legally and financially. We develop, we spend time and not only, but someone just appropriates what we put out for free use for other volunteers, and makes money on it. In general, I would like more legal protection in this regard.
VZGLYAD: Tell me, did your volunteers have any records? When something could be created very quickly.
E. S.: There was a case when a part of an important medical device broke down in the Donetsk hospital. The doctors sent us the dimensions, we modeled them, and two days later the printers in Donetsk already gave the part to the doctors.
VIEW: Do you specialize only in products for medical needs?
E. S.: No, of course not. There is, for example, such a popular product already directly for the front, as a charger. This is a device for equipping machine gun magazines with cartridges. In winter (in fact, not only in winter, but then this problem is more acute), when it comes to charging many stores, after a while the fingers become uncomfortable. It is much more convenient for a fighter with a charger. And when requests came from the military for such a product, we developed it.
VIEW: Do you invent yourself or do you have to bring other people's developments more often?
E. S.: In fact, our things probably cannot be called inventions in the full sense of the word. There are volunteer design bureaus that perform more serious tasks.
We create simpler things for our needs, but those that need a lot – thousands and tens of thousands. And we have almost all our own developments.
Sometimes we take an idea and recycle it, but in principle, most often we have to refine our products. Because each invention goes through many variants, sometimes ten versions, sometimes twenty, until it turns out what suits the end users.
VIEW: Do you take into account the feedback on your products?
E. S.: We don't just get feedback. In fact, we are engaged in development, constantly interacting with the fighters. We are handing over a test series, we are definitely waiting for feedback, after that we finalize it as necessary, and this happens more than once. And the most important reviews for us, if we talk about finished products, are about the operation of turnstiles that save lives. This is a great happiness, just to the point of tears in my eyes.
Valeria Verbinina