- Company waiting 48hrs for authorization from the Consell to manufacture 300 respirators a day to fight against the coronavirus
- Prototype ventilator developed by a company in Elche together with an engineering company in Petrer
- All the components of the machine can be purchased on the national market.
President Ximo Puig said last Tuesday that getting more respirators for the ICUs is an absolute priority that “keeps him awake at night” in the Valencian Government’s fight against the coronavirus.
Well, Snr Puig, there is now some light as the Elche company Industrial Resistances Maxiwatt has developed the first industrial and adaptable field ventilator but it can’t put them into production because your department of Health is still to issue the permit needed to manufacture.
The ventilator has been developed with the collaboration of Cobots Ingeniería de Petrer, using expertise gained from pulmonologists and internists in the General Hospitals of Elche and Vinalopó.
The design is downloadable over the internet so that any person or entrepreneur can contribute new functions, help in its development or join in the manufacturing process.
By employing laser-cut construction technology, the Elche firm, which has a hundred operators, could launch a production line in a matter of hours resulting in the manufacture of 300 respirators per day. But for this they need to have a permit from the Consell, which they have been waiting for since Tuesday.
“At this time, being a field respirator for non-extremely critical patients, we are in the process of having it validated and approved by the health authorities,” explained the manager of Maxivatt, José Rodríguez Ródenas, who highlighted the “Considerable contribution” to the project by the industrial engineer Javier Gracia, of the collaborative robotics firm Cobots.
The respirator is very robust and portable, it is made of stainless steel and all of its components are easily available on the open market, which greatly facilitates its manufacture in these times of confinement and the closed borders caused by Covid-19.
The most notable feature, as its developers explain, is that the user can easily adapt it to any type of respirator available and it works at 230 or 12 volts.
Also in development is a modification created by the Encuentros Empresariales group from the Marina Baixa, that will allow ICUs in hospitals use a ventilator on two patients simultaneously. The piece, made with a 3D printer, was successfully tested at the IMED Levante hospital in Benidorm last week after three days of testing, following the doctors’ instructions, until it could be perfectly fitted to the respirators.
So far more than a hundred pieces have been manufactured, which are already being distributed to hospitals across the region and in several autonomous communities.
