Author Topic: Virgin Orbit, UCI and UT Austin Design New Mass-Producible Ventilator  (Read 3519 times)

Offline Chris Bergin

Presser (and great news).

VIRGIN ORBIT, UCI AND UT AUSTIN DESIGN NEW MASS-PRODUCIBLE VENTILATOR FOR COVID-19 PATIENTS
 

Long Beach, California — March 30, 2020 — Virgin Orbit has developed a new mass-producible bridge ventilator to help in the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Virgin Orbit team has been consulting with the Bridge Ventilator Consortium (BVC), led by the University of California Irvine (UCI) and the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), a group formed to spawn and nurture efforts to build producible, simple ventilators to aid in the current COVID-19 crisis. Pending clearance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Virgin Orbit aims to commence production at its Long Beach manufacturing facility in early April, sprinting to deliver units into the hands of first responders and healthcare professionals as soon as possible.

 

As the COVID-19 crisis worsens and the paucity of medical equipment becomes more and more clear, the Virgin Orbit team is strongly motivated to do all that we can to help. On a normal day, we’re building rockets and other equipment for space launch; we are not medical doctors nor are we usually manufacturers of medical devices. But we do have a team of incredibly innovative and agile thinkers — experts in designing, fabricating, programming, testing — who are eager to lend a hand.

 

After contacting Governor Gavin Newsom last week, Virgin Orbit was directed by his office to the California Emergency Medical Services Authority (CEMSA) and put in contact with the BVC.

The BVC is a team of brilliant doctors, medical device experts, and researchers at UCI and UT Austin who are working around the clock, sharing ideas across a broad national and international network to share best practices and design insights and to accelerate progress on solutions to this equipment shortage. Today, complex, high-end, ICU-capable ventilators are sometimes the only option available for moderate cases — for people who don’t necessarily need intensive care or have partially recovered. By supplying “bridge” ventilators, Virgin Orbit’s device can free up those critical resources for the most ill.

 

“We face a slow-motion Dunkirk, and getting ventilators out there is very important to save lives,” said Dr. Brian J.F. Wong, assistant chairman of otolaryngology at UCI. “The demand outstrips supply, so it is important the government, industry, academia, non-profits, and the community work together to identify solutions, and design and construct them as fast as possible.”

 

Virgin Orbit engineers have taken rapid scaling into account from the beginning of the design process, taking advantage of the most common and robust manufacturing and assembly processes. The company’s aim is to have a functioning, deployable bridge ventilator in production in early April. Virgin Orbit would continue on to rapidly scale up to mass production in its Long Beach facility, in addition to potentially activating other manufacturers as soon as the new device is reproducible and production-ready.

 

“We are all heartbroken each night as we turn on the news and see the predicament facing doctors and nurses as they heroically work to save lives,” said Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart. “I have never seen our team working harder. Never seen ideas moving quicker from design to prototype. We are hopeful that this device can help as we all prepare for the challenges ahead.”
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Offline russianhalo117

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Offline WebHankerchief22

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Hey thats pretty epic that they are designing mass producible ventilators. Good that these companies atleast have some compassion for others. Really shows their true colors in a good way.

Currently I am posting this on March 31st, 2020 and apparently the US currently has 188172 cases and I am VERY happy to hear that our American companies are trying to help. It is very relieving because out US domestic cases are SKYROCKETING, I think we'll sadly have 200k in no time.

P.S. The screenshot I included is the website I website I got my case data on.. Hopefully we will never get to the point where we will have to be tracking a COVID-19 case in space or the ISS! By the way, if your curious the website I am using is called coronavirus map real time.

Stay safe everyone!
« Last Edit: 04/01/2020 04:41 am by WebHankerchief22 »

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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Good news

twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1253364127478792192

Quote
The FDA just gave emergency authorization to Virgin Orbit's ventilators for use with coronavirus patients, with the company expecting to begin deliveries to hospitals in the next few days: BREAKING.

My story on the devices:

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1253364787636994048

Quote
Virgin Orbit says it is currently producing ventilators at a rate of over 100 per week and will deliver units to California’s Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA).

Offline dwheeler

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I watched this video a few weeks ago on the engineering that goes into ventilators. The video's creator didn't have much to say for Virgin Orbit's offering. Regardless, I learned a lot about the subject and would recommend watching it if you have 15 minutes:



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