The arrival of COVID-19 caught everyone unaware, especially in the healthcare sector and it led to a shortage of respirators, face masks, and ventilators. The sudden lack of this equipment has made automobile manufacture to venture into the production of these special medical PPE and equipment.
Ford’s efforts in manufacturing ventilators
Since automobiles’ sales have been affected by the pandemic, the vehicle manufacturing industries such as Ford are venturing into the production of respirators and ventilators. Though they are not experts in this field, they have decided to partner with the experts to produce the required ventilators, respirators, and face masks. For a standard ventilator to be manufactured, it requires 27 hours to come up with one ventilator.
However, Ford has made it clear that it will take them half of that time to make a quality ventilator. Ford has decided to partner with GE Healthcare to produce 1500 ventilators monthly, starting at the end of April. The partnership is to produce more than 12,000 ventilators at the end of May. Besides, Ford aims to make more than 50,000 ventilators after 100 days, which was deemed effective starting mid of April.
After gaining approval from the FDA, their simplified design will function on pneumatic pressure basis and will not require electricity in its operations. The labor will be achieved from qualified volunteers, according to Ford’s CEO. Additionally, in partnership with 3M, the Ford engineers also made some streamlined powered air-purifying respirators (“PAPR”), which will protect the doctors, nurses, and other front workers.
The new look of the PAPRS
Ford’s new respirator is fascinating as it has a spacesuit-like helmet that is being operated by a battery. The respirator also contains a blower fan whose function is to draw air via a protective filter to the helmet. The respirator is very useful for people who work in contaminated places such as in the healthcare sector, paint shops, and firefighters.
For Ford to produce enough respirators to bridge the shortage, they will have to use some of the automobile parts that will not be required to manufacture vehicles. Some of these parts include the lithium-ion batteries, seat cooling fans from their F-150 pickup trucks, and their painting bay’s respirator hood fabrics.
Additionally, the car manufacturing industry will also factor in 3D printing to produce transparent, disposable air respirators, face shields and masks for public use. The company will have the capability of producing 100,000 face shields every week after gaining approval from the FDA.
Ventilators by General Motors
The company has also partnered with Ventec to manufacture more than 200,000 ventilators within one month. Their ventilators will feature hospital-grade suction, oxygen, a touch button cough assist, and a portable unit. The ventilator will be so much sophisticated as it will be helping the patient to breathe. Besides, they will also produce some surgical masks, which are also essential in fighting the pandemic.
Experts say that the response made by carmakers to help out in this pandemic is commendable and will complement the solutions offered by entities like Genprex Inc. (NASDAQ: GNPX).
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