Ventilators

It became clear early on during the outbreak of Covid-19 that ventilators play a key role in saving lives. In Germany and the USA, there are around 90 to 120 ventilators per 100,000 people in hospital intensive care units. In the UK, Spain and France, there are sometimes only 30 to 40 ventilators per intensive care unit.

This acute shortage has had devastating consequences in recent weeks. Spain and Italy, for example, had Covid-19 patients airlifted to German hospitals because their ventilator capacities were exhausted. But in Germany, too, there was great fear of capacity being exhausted.

To counteract bottlenecks, the German government ordered 10,000 ventilators from the Lübeck-based medical technology group Dräger in addition to the far-reaching lockdown measures. According to Dräger, however, production will continue throughout the year.

The search for alternatives and additional production options therefore continues.

The American way: the car industry should produce masks

Initially, we assumed that the automotive industry, which had been at a standstill for weeks, would be able to switch over and produce ventilators. At the end of March, Donald Trump used a war bill to force car manufacturers General Motors and Volkswagen to produce ventilators. Trump demanded the production of 100,000 devices within 100 days.

However, this proved to make little sense, as experts warn of the complexity and high safety requirements of medical technology.

"I can't simply manufacture ventilators on a production line that makes cars," said Jean Haeffs, Managing Director of the Production and Logistics Association of the Association of German Engineers (VDI). The large number of processes that differ, the high demands on the safety of the devices and the high complexity of the systems make it impossible for companies from outside the industry to manufacture intensive care devices. However, it would be conceivable to support the production of individual parts using 3D printing.

Ventilation from the printer

Leipzig University Hospital, the WHZ and the Frauenhofer IWU have jointly developed a prototype for a 3D-printed emergency ventilator to show how this is possible. Thanks to interdisciplinary collaboration, it was possible to develop the first prototype within a week.

Student Lukan Basan, who is in his 4th semester of automotive engineering at WHZ, played a key role here. His mother works at the university as a laboratory engineer in the field of biomedical engineering and asked him if he would like to support this project. "3D printing is one of my main interests," says Lukas Basan about the beginnings of the family-interdisciplinary collaboration.

This secured his support and, together with a research team and numerous scientists, the foundations were laid and the 3D-printed ventilator was developed within a very short space of time.

The device is not a medically certified ventilator either, but it is an emergency option that could save the lives of many patients. A major advantage is that up to three of these systems can be printed per day and the development can be scaled up, meaning that the systems can also be produced in large quantities in different countries thanks to access to an international network of 3D printers.

From gas wall heater to ventilator

At the end of April, heating appliance manufacturer Viessmann announced that it was now switching parts of its production to the manufacture of ventilators. The first prototype was developed within three days and the first device after three weeks. This was "totally remarkable and a tremendous effort by everyone involved", reports Viessmann in its first major interview since the shutdown.

With great ambition, diligence and commitment from the developers and in close cooperation with doctors from Luisenhospital, the academic teaching hospital of the Faculty of Medicine at RWTH Aachen University, it was possible to drive development forward so rapidly. This was aided by the fact that similar parts are produced in the manufacture of gas wall devices that are also used in ventilators.

According to Viessmann, the simple ventilators can be used on the move and are not dependent on the technical infrastructure of a hospital. However, they do not replace high-tech ventilators and should therefore only be used as support when all ventilators are already in use.

However, this is also an urgently needed support and the manufacturer is hopeful that it will be able to produce 600 ventilators per day once special approval has been granted.

That was part #3 of our "Pivot Masters" series. In the next part, we turn our attention to newly founded social initiatives that are combating the consequences of the coronavirus crisis.