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Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson

#41

Post by michaelt »

Slartie wrote: post #23
lnsru wrote: post #2

“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.

This does make sense. Every company that normally doesn't produce ventilators but wants to make lots of them fast must repurpose as much of its existing tech (production lines, parts etc.) as possible. This requires intimate knowledge of private tech, which only internal teams have.

It depends on what the hospitals' requirements really are.

Can they make do with go2vent-style gas operated products [1], which have no electronics?

If so, that's a very different situation to if hospitals need products with oil-free compressors and motors and PCBs and screens and power supplies and air filtering and pressure sensors and...

[1] https://www.vortran.com/go2vent

Re: Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson

#42

Post by mantap »

khjklehti wrote: post #38
6nf wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Could you have something like the pain medication button, where the pacient has an up/down button to tweak the settings?

No, not least because the patient is usually paralyzed so that they aren't fighting the ventilator.

Re: Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson

#43

Post by ksangeelee »

bobowzki wrote: post #33

I'm an intensivist and I really hope that ventilator won't be mounted on the bed like they show in the picture. That's a very bad idea, you need that space to access the patient.

One of the requirements reads:

"Ideally small and light enough to mount on patient bed and orientation independent functioning."

While floor mounted operation is the mandatory requirement, it seems that it's not always a bad idea to have it mounted on the bed.

Re: Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson

#44

Post by ksangeelee »

midgetjones wrote: post #16

Didn't Dyson move all his manufacturing to Singapore at the same time as loudly espousing Brexit? Waiting for the v2 of the ventilator that has a ball attached, and costs an extra £100.

He moved his head office to Singapore around the time he was pushing the UK to leave the EU. Manufacturing had already been moved offshore years before that - Malaysia as I recall, though probably elsewhere too.

Re: Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson

#45

Post by nutjob2 »

amlozano wrote: post #6

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?

I think the hard part is that it has to run continuously, reliably and within tight tolerances or someone dies.

Re: Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson

#46

Post by PJDK »

lnsru wrote: post #30
PJDK wrote: post #13

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.

That seems like a compelling case for a different design - doing something so that the existing motors can be used. Hopefully when all this blows over we'll have some interesting books and articles to read!

Re: Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson

#47

Post by bobowzki »

ksangeelee wrote: post #43
bobowzki wrote: post #33

I'm an intensivist and I really hope that ventilator won't be mounted on the bed like they show in the picture. That's a very bad idea, you need that space to access the patient.

One of the requirements reads: "Ideally small and light enough to mount on patient bed and orientation independent functioning." While floor mounted operation is the mandatory requirement, it seems that it's not always a bad idea to have it mounted on the bed.

It's normally mounted at the short ends. Not the sides.

Re: Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson

#48

Post by mygo »

ekianjo wrote: post #5
lnsru wrote: post #2

“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.

Agreed. As I understand it, Dyson’s ventilators are ready for scaled production. Maybe they can begin to collaborate with others down the road, but time was essential, and they were clearly able to get these out without a lot of unnecessary phone tag.

Re: Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson

#49

Post by viklove »

arethuza wrote: post #25
midgetjones wrote: post #16

Didn't Dyson move all his manufacturing to Singapore at the same time as loudly espousing Brexit? Waiting for the v2 of the ventilator that has a ball attached, and costs an extra £100.

Whatever his views on Brexit (and I am Remainer), I think credit should be given to Dyson and his team - they are going to be manufactured in the UK and he is paying with his own money for 4000 of these ventilators to be donated to other countries: https://www.ft.com/content/4cc667f2-6ee2-11ea-89df-41bea0557...

Wow, I'm sure the millions of dollars he's gonna make from the 10k ventilators has no impact on his motivation.
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