31–40 of 49 posts
So are ventilators actually complicated and frequently modernized equipment or medical TI83s. I was reading one the largest expenditures of PPEs in China after they resolved the supply issue was adjusting ventilator settings. Seems like a wired or wireless interface would go a long way.
The government turned down an offer from the EU because Europe which is a bit worrying. There are plenty of medical equipment manufacturers in the UK who've made these exact products before, or very similar products, and who know the rules and regulations well. They've offered to help, but not heard anything back from the government. https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1242949236762738692 These are the kinds of t…
Dyson and others efforts are additional to the two ventilator manufacturers in the UK, who have already received orders for about as much as they can produce. From the article: "...the government thinks it can procure a further 8,000 from existing domestic and international suppliers"
As you say, the Dyson effort was a separate programme. Existing medical equipment manufacturers -companies that make medical equipment but not necessarily these ventilators at the moment- tried to apply to that separate scheme and they were ignored. The money went to Dyson or car makers. It's probably better to spend the money on companies that already make medical products and help them increase their capacity than it is to spend it on car makers and Dyson who'll need to re-tool their factories and re-train their staff.
The government turned down an offer from the EU because Europe which is a bit worrying. There are plenty of medical equipment manufacturers in the UK who've made these exact products before, or very similar products, and who know the rules and regulations well. They've offered to help, but not heard anything back from the government. https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1242949236762738692 These are the kinds of t…
You're extrapolating a lot here. That's one guy showing up on TV, presumably running a small medical equipment company, who got into contact with someone at the DTI, who told him to fill out a form on a website. He did, but there was no followup. The end.
Note that he also says he can't actually ramp up production that quickly, that he relies on subcontractors that aren't available, and so on. I don't see what the government can actually do for him, besides ordering something that he can't produce at bigger capacity anyway.
A company like Dyson could presumably produce the whole thing in-house. A zoo of interdependent companies may be more efficient at small scales, but at large scales, logistics becomes the bottleneck.
So are ventilators actually complicated and frequently modernized equipment or medical TI83s. I was reading one the largest expenditures of PPEs in China after they resolved the supply issue was adjusting ventilator settings. Seems like a wired or wireless interface would go a long way.
As the patient wakes up or goes to sleep etc you may need to adjust the ventilator again so that they're comfortable.
It's just a labour intensive job.
“Dyson has had hundreds of engineers working round the clock to design the ventilators from scratch.” It blows my mind. Everybody now, instead of cooperating, tries to design a perfect ventilator.
> instead of cooperating Sometimes cooperation takes a whole more time than doing things by yourself if you know exactly what needs to be done. Adding more groups/interactions typically slow down delivery.
“Dyson has had hundreds of engineers working round the clock to design the ventilators from scratch.” It blows my mind. Everybody now, instead of cooperating, tries to design a perfect ventilator.
From what I understand, Dyson is not trying to "design a perfect ventilator." He's trying to design a cheaper, easier-to-produce ventilator that will be good enough for many situations, vastly improving the availability of ventilators for all who need it. Everyone else seems to be just working on producing the existing, hard-to-produce ventilator.
So are ventilators actually complicated and frequently modernized equipment or medical TI83s. I was reading one the largest expenditures of PPEs in China after they resolved the supply issue was adjusting ventilator settings. Seems like a wired or wireless interface would go a long way.
The ventilator settings they're referring to are basically 2 variables: The number of breaths per minute, and the volume of air pumped for each breath. As the patient wakes up or goes to sleep etc you may need to adjust the ventilator again so that they're comfortable. It's just a labour intensive job.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dyson are working with Technology Partnership, a medical device manufacturer. Presumably they're working on a new design that takes advantage of the existing tooling and parts that Dyson have. There's another consortium working to ramp up production of existing designs - seems sensible to try both approaches.
This sounds convincing. Though Dyson’s products do not have much in common with medical equipment. Hair dryer or vacuum cleaner has other power level than ventilator for the lungs.
How hard are these things to build? It certainly looks like a complicated medical device, but is there a simpler DIY version that gets the job done?
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...
You can see that the hardest part isn't so much the mechanics, but the parameters within which the device must operate, including safeguards on multiple conditions.
From a software point of view alone, I'm sure most of us here can appreciate the difficulty in producing this from scratch. e.g. "It must have 100% duty cycle for up to 14 days".
I suspect a huge challenge will be sourcing components, such as pressure sensors, that meet the required specifications. These seem likely to be specialised parts.