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Among the often disparate fields of design, engineering, and manufacturing, old rivalries are being put aside and replaced by a spirit of collaboration in the fight against the coronavirus.
In the United Kingdom, 14 companies—including Airbus, BAE systems, Ford, McLaren, GKN, Siemens, and Rolls Royce—have formed a consortium called Ventilator Challenge UK, to produce mechanical ventilators for the National Health Service. Beyond lending factory floor space and logistical know-how, the companies have redeployed some of their most skilled engineers to work on the ventilator effort. The group has received orders for more than 10,000 machines and is ready to start production pending regulatory approval.
This follows last week’s news that Dyson (in collaboration with The Technology Partnership in Cambridge) signed a formal contract for an order of 10,000 of its CoVent—a ventilator recently designed from scratch.
The CoVent needs to secure final regulatory approval, and may not reach production for some weeks. Ventilator Challenge UK’s plans are further along, thanks to the use of two existing designs. Project Oyster, understood as the medical community’s first choice, involves slight tweaks to an existing design by a little-known Oxfordshire firm called Penlon. A parallel effort by the same consortium, nicknamed Project Penguin, will scale up production of a model made by medical equipment firm Smiths Medical at its factory in Luton.
In another example of lightning-fast innovation, designers and engineers at University College London have teamed up with clinicians and the Mercedes Formula One team to create a breathing aid (similar to ones used by sleep apnea patients) that can help keep Coronavirus patients out of intensive care. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (or CPAP) devices push air and oxygen into the mouth and nose without the need for a ventilator, keeping the lungs open and making it easier to breath. Crucially, unlike when using a mechanical ventilator, the patient doesn’t need to be sedated. In Italy, around half of the patients treated with CPAP devices avoided needing intensive care.
The designs are being evaluated at University College London Hospital; if trials succeed, they will go into mass production, with Mercedes F1 saying it can produce up to 1,000 a day for distribution throughout the NHS.
As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, the Montreal General Hospital Foundation has collaborated with the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre on the Code Life Ventilator Challenge, which asks designers to develop inexpensive, easy-to-build ventilators. Applications close at midnight tonight, with the top three designs announced on April 15.
And there’s more: Richard Branson’s rocket-launch company Virgin Orbit is working with the Bridge Ventilator Consortium in an effort led by the Universities of California and Texas. Starting next month, they hope to build a simple type of medical ventilator at a rate of several hundred a week. In the U.S., manufacturers such as Ford and General Electric are teaming up to build tens of thousands of ventilators, while General Motors is acting in a similar vein and retooling its Kokomo, Indiana plant and partnering with Ventec Life Systems.
All this positive, can-do attitude is heartening, but a sober word of caution came from the Financial Times this week: For all their expertise and clout, it’s unclear whether manufacturers inexperienced in this specific field can overcome the logistical, technical, and regulatory hurdles in time to deliver machines in the enormous numbers that will be required. Here’s hoping that the creative collaborations we’re witnessing will help overcome such hurdles.
More design news below.
Tony Chambers
