VentilatorChallengeUK unites engineering to deliver Covid-19 ventilators

On March 16, 2020, government called on the UK's engineers to make up the anticipated shortfall in ventilators by producing and assembling the life-saving devices.

Since then, The VentilatorChallengeUK Consortium has pulled together 15 companies and groups, seven UK-based F1 teams, and five ‘key enablers’ including Accenture, Microsoft and PTC to rapidly build existing, modified or newly designed ventilators at speed, with seven priority projects underway.

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“They are working to improve the speed at which current UK ventilator manufacturers can produce their devices, with larger companies changing their existing operations to help provide the UK with the equipment and personnel it needs for this effort,” the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.

Covid-19 is an acute respiratory condition and ventilators will help the afflicted to breathe by using a pump to push oxygen into the body and take carbon dioxide out. With Consortium assistance, Smiths Group announced on March 30, 2020 that it will ramp up production ‘pacPARC plus’ ventilators to of 10,000 units. Similarly, Abingdon-based Penlon will fast-track the production of its ES02 systems.