The entire world is facing many shortages, from food to medical supplies, to face masks and ventilators, in this growing COVID-19 pandemic.
Dyson, a British technology company, which manufactures vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, hand dryers, bladeless fans, and hair dryers, is taking action in this battle. In only ten days, the company designed and built a new ventilator, dubbed CoVent, in coordination with TTP (the technology partnership). The CoVent is a portable, bed-mounted ventilator that can be run from battery power in field-hospital conditions.
Dyson will produce 10,000 ventilators for the U.K., under a grant from the country’s government with oversight from MHRA (the U.K. National Health Service and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency). Also, it will produce another 5,000 ventilators for donation, of which 1,000 will go to the U.K., and the remaining will go to other countries in need.
In the United States, big companies, including Tesla, Ford, and G.M. have all been given the ‘go-ahead’ by President Trump, to begin producing ventilators and any other items in demand during the ongoing pandemic.
On March 25th, James Dyson sent the company an internal email that said:
Hospitals are the frontline in the war against Covid-19, where heroic doctors, nurses, and care workers are battling to save lives and help people recover from this terrible virus. As with any battle, there are many challenges to overcome, not least the availability of essential equipment, which in this case means ventilators. A ventilator supports a patient who is no longer able to maintain their airways, but sadly there is currently a significant shortage, both in the U.K. and other countries around the world.
Since I received a call from Boris Johnson ten days ago, we have refocused resources at Dyson, and worked with TTP, The Technology Partnership, to design and build an entirely new ventilator, The CoVent. This new device can be manufactured quickly, efficiently, and at volume. It is designed to address the specific clinical needs of Covid-19 patients, and it is suited to a variety of clinical settings. The core challenge was how to design and deliver a new, sophisticated medical product in volume and in an extremely short space of time. The race is now on to get it into production.
The Dyson Digital motor sits at the heart of the new device, and the motor’s design is optimized to have a very high level of intrinsic safety, making it particularly well-suited for industrial, high volume production. The device is designed to achieve a high-quality air supply to ensure its safety and effectiveness, drawing on our air purifier expertise, which delivers high-quality filtration in high-volume products.
I am proud of what Dyson engineers and our partners at TTP have achieved. I am eager to see this new device in production and in hospitals as soon as possible. This is clearly a time of grave international crisis. I will, therefore, donate 5,000 units to the international effort, 1,000 of which will go to the United Kingdom.
A representative from the Dyson company claims that production of the ventilators will “begin immediately,” however, there is no specific date on completion or delivery.
