most worrying symptoms of covid-19 is the way the coronavirus attacks the lungs of those infected. This means some patients need a ventilator to help them breathe until their lungs recover. But there is a dire shortage of these machines in hospitals, so intensive-care units will be overwhelmed. Urged on by worried governments, ventilator manufacturers are working flat out and forming partnerships with carmakers, aerospace firms and others to boost output as fast as possible.
Ventilators work by pumping air, mixed with additional oxygen as required by the patient, into the lungs. Carbon dioxide is expelled as the lungs contract. The air can be supplied to a patient via a mask. If more breathing support is needed, a tube is inserted down the patient’s trachea and into his or her airways, a process known as intubation. Alternatively, air can be delivered through a tube inserted through an incision in the windpipe.
Yet that does not mean it is impossible. It all depends on the options that are available, says Tim Minshall, head of the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge. At one end of the spectrum, he says, existing ventilator producers can be helped to make more machines. In the middle are simpler designs for respirators that might be more easily manufactured and could be built by skilled companies that regulators trust.
A number of industry groups have got together in response to a request by the British government for 5,000 new ventilators as soon as possible , and more later, bringing the total to 30,000. One group is led by Meggitt, an aerospace firm based in Britain that among other things also makes oxygen systems for aircraft. The Meggitt team includes Renishaw, a precision-engineering company that usesprinters to make components used in health-care products.
This is happening in Ontario, Canada ,too. A big shoutout to our private sector and provincial government!
this is not a new idea. During WW2 companies in Germany were retrofitting factories to make war materials for the Reich hoping to profit from the war as a way to survive. a man named Oskar Schindler, while he was labeled a War Profiteer, used his company to SAVE hundreds of jews.
Wrote about this yesterday RTEBrainstorm rte '...we are witnessing some smart thinking such as manufacturers retooling production lines to make respirators, distillers turning out hand sanitising gel..,Will such flexibility continue after this crisis?
Viber and Skype work.
Except nowadays, if there’s no profit, they won’t help save lives.
I'm collecting several of these designs here
Engineer university students in Colombia are fabricating their own to supply the country in case of a shortage
Are there measures coordinated by authorities in some countries to increase the production of these goods? If not, how could this be achieved? It seems that there are currently some spare capacities - especially when you consider the many smaller and more flexible companies?
AdosGrievances Finally
Its good help and chanche production. Lubos
Really? Trump won't like that, and he WILL get in the way.
Same as War century all the factories turn to manufacture gun and bullet . Right now ventilator and mask ?!
Maybe address the toiletpapercrisis I'm still perplexed with all this hoarding and panic buying.
Excellent idea
But Manufacturing them would rise the CO2 levels! Scientist also said that we should lover them at all cost. Who is in the right here?
But they won't be ready until sometime in May!!