Gallery, Projects and General > How to's
Ventilator
Joules:
Realistically there is untapped production from engineers workshop across the country. It seems a shame we can’t organise the production of maybe none essential none critical components, freeing up production elsewhere. This would give alot of people something to do and make them feel involved in the efforts to combat this virus. Many older people will be isolated and despite best efforts may not be able to concentrate on their own projects as much as something that might make a difference to others.
I had thought about how anyone with access to a laser cutter could be making paper masks. Store them for 72hrs to hopefully let any possible viral contamination expire. Other disposable parts that could be used in hospital enviroment, many of us have 3D printers at our disposal now.
Just how to get the word out.
AdeV:
--- Quote from: nrml on March 19, 2020, 06:51:45 PM ---All the talk of large technology companies stepping in to manufacture ventilators on a war footing to support the corona effort is pure fantasy.
--- End quote ---
I don't see why. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of CNC-equipped factories and workshops all over the UK - and I don't mean little home shops like ours, proper professional setups producing professionally priced goods - which could turn out ventilator parts by the millions, if needed. For sure, assembly, testing and certification of the end products might be more specialist, but again, on a "war footing", with money more-or-less no object, suitable training could be rolled out in days.
awemawson:
The underground tunnels beneath the car factories in the Midlands, that were used as shadow factories in the war are still in existence - perhaps we should open them up? They are a bit wet in places but still in remarkably good condition:
nrml:
--- Quote from: AdeV on March 25, 2020, 01:42:57 PM ---
--- Quote from: nrml on March 19, 2020, 06:51:45 PM ---All the talk of large technology companies stepping in to manufacture ventilators on a war footing to support the corona effort is pure fantasy.
--- End quote ---
I don't see why. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of CNC-equipped factories and workshops all over the UK - and I don't mean little home shops like ours, proper professional setups producing professionally priced goods - which could turn out ventilator parts by the millions, if needed. For sure, assembly, testing and certification of the end products might be more specialist, but again, on a "war footing", with money more-or-less no object, suitable training could be rolled out in days.
--- End quote ---
Designing a new ITU ventilator from scratch needs a lot of knowledge of pulmonary physiology in normal and diseased states besides engineering and testing. They are not simple devices. There is awful lot of custom electronics and software control which has to be completely bug free before being used on people.
The easiest route to mass manufacture would be to produce an existing device under licence and perhaps pare it down to simplify the build. The custom electronics would again be a rate limiting step rather than the mechanical bits. It's doable given enough time, but that is something we don't have a lot of.
The experience from China and Italy seems to suggest that a large proportion of patients with respiratory failure need ventilation for 2-3 weeks. An expensive ventilator with limited capability and questionable reliability is of limited value clinically for supporting a patient for this long. It would have to be reliable enough to work non-stop without any malfunction for several weeks at a time. It is probably safer to stick with anaesthetic machines for extra capacity as most UK hospitals are doing and wait for existing manufacturers to deliver. China, Germany and America have put their efforts into ramping up production within existing manufacturers facilities.
Our hospital has been able to order extra ITU ventilators from one of the smaller German manufacturers and we have commandeered ventilators and anaesthetic machines from private hospitals in the region. We are likely to face a shortage of skilled manpower to manage these ventilated patients before lack of devices becomes the major limiting factor.
Will_D:
One Irish example of re-purposing:
2 clothing factories in Donegal and NI have stopped producing existing clothing and sports wear lines and are no producing hospital "scrubs".
Un-fekkin-believeably in this here republic is that health care workers
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version