
Dyson has announced it will develop a new type of medical ventilator for NHS - hhs
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52021757
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arcticbull
> Some industry insiders have suggested that Dyson's approach to create a new
> model will take too long.

You don't say. You can't just turn a vacuum cleaner into a ventilator by
setting it to Blow instead of Suck. Medical devices take a very long time to
develop, certify, build, release and develop training for because they're
_medical devices_. The rule of thumb for consumer-grade hardware is it takes a
minimum of one year from ideation to first delivery.

You want new ones fast, you get the manufacturers who make existing ones make
more of them. The problem isn't that we're out of ventilator _designs_ , it's
that we're out of physical ventilators.

This feels like Elon's child-rescue submarine, and at least as far as COVID-19
it's likely to save exactly the same number of people.

~~~
freepor
When you need more than the existing manufacturers can produce, and the
alternative (Italy) is to let them die in a hallway, then you might be willing
to try anything. If it was my life I’d prefer the Dyson over nothing.

~~~
arcticbull
So take the design from one existing company and ramp the manufacture. The
alternative isn't sit down with a blank sheet of paper and some pencils and
see what you can knock out in a couple of weeks and shove into people without
going through the appropriate testing and certification procedures.

The problem isn't a lack of ventilator designs.

~~~
freepor
How can Dyson ramp up ventilator production? Their factories are not set up to
manufacture ventilators with completely different materials or tooling. Dyson
not only has production capacity for hundreds of thousands of vacuum cleaners,
but probably has tens of thousands already in stock in warehouses and at
retailers. If they can find a way to use them to help patients, those patients
can get that help TOMORROW. They absolutely cannot do that with ventilators.

~~~
arcticbull
My lord, you can't use a vacuum cleaner to help patients that need ventilators
except by removing dirt from their floors.

~~~
freepor
Well then Dyson can't help, that's fine. But it doesn't harm anyone but them
to try, so they seem to be doing the right thing in trying.

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olivermarks
Unfortunately I think Dyson is a blowhard (sorry about pun) and self promoter.
This hack of a Decathlon Scuba mask is the sort of thing these manufacturers
should be presenting to the world rather than their endless brand promotion.
[https://www.isinnova.it/easy-covid19-eng/](https://www.isinnova.it/easy-
covid19-eng/)

------
martyvis
Anyone seen any info on the Dyson AirBlades used for hand-drying in public
restrooms? They are very effective at drying , but flick a lot of water up and
onto the unit. I guess if everyone has properly washed their hands the WHO
way, the rinse water should be safe, but I'm still wondering whether you are
risking getting virus from the previous possibly infected person who also
doesn't know the words to Happy Birthday.

~~~
satysin
I _hate_ those god-awful AirBlade dryers. I have long fingers and it is almost
impossible to dry my hands without that disgusting pool of water flicking up
onto the tips of my fingers. Curl your fingers you say? Not possible due to
how narrow the gap is without almost always making contact with the sides of
the unit.

Terrible machines.

~~~
flir
Totally agreed. Can't get my hands in and out of them without brushing the
sides. It's not easy to take something terrible (a hand dryer) and make it
worse.

Since this pandemic, I've just stopped using them altogether.

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GeekyBear
I've mentioned it before, but there is already an American company that makes
a simplified and hardened version of a ventilator that is aimed at meeting
surge demand during a pandemic.

[http://www.alliedhpi.com/mcv.htm](http://www.alliedhpi.com/mcv.htm)

They have already gone through the regulatory approval process and the
cheapest model was retailing at about $3,000 and not the $50,000 number Ive
seen tossed about for models with all the modern bells and whistles.

When you need to ramp up production quickly, simpler is better.

~~~
ineedasername
Reading that page I'm actually astounded we don't have 100,000 of them
stockpiled around the country.

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jacquesm
There is a very dark joke in here somewhere given how well Dyson airblades
spread bacteria and other crap around.

~~~
762236
I submitted a support question to them about the safety of their airblades,
and they never responded.

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benmarks
How much does _that_ cost? /j

But seriously, good to see so many companies stepping up to just get things
done, and to see (more or less) regulations being set aside or handled
speedily.

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DrNuke
Lol... just copycat the fastest and cheapest approved model for the high
numbers you need? Dyson doing a Dyson is soooo smug or exceptionalist again.
Sigh

~~~
dguaraglia
To be fair, a lot of these companies trying to switch manufacturing to help
with the COVID-19 epidemic are hamstrung by the same intellectual and
copyright laws they normally would.

The only two sane approaches would be that copyright owners provide temporary,
free licenses to other manufacturers (heck, even make the government pay a
royalty for each unit) or the government to force the companies to provide the
designs.

Neither option would be favored by either UK or US right now, because the cult
of free enterprise is more important than human loss.

~~~
tim333
Boris could just say they are not going to enforce copyright etc during the
crisis.

~~~
dguaraglia
He could, but he won't. This is Boris 'we need to leave the EU because too
much government' Johnson.

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ineedasername
Why would it be easier/faster for a company to make their own design than for
existing manufacturers to scale up production? Wouldn't it make more sense to
throw resources at scaling existing production than new designs which would,
themselves, then need to have production scaled up anyway?

------
brigandish
I'm reading the comments and people are questioning the ability to get them
done in 14 days or whichever absurdly short space of time you'd want to pick.

There is no evidence this pandemic will be over at any time in the near or
long term future, just a thus far folorn hope. For all we know it will persist
for a couple of waves of death, then as a mutation, year on year. The
fragility of our health systems has been exposed and the ability of
manufacturers to ramp up production, or even share designs[0] so they can be
fixed in the meantime, has also been show to be lacking so some competition in
the space to

a) produce more ventilators

b) hopefully produce better ventilators

c) make them cheaper

cannot be a bad thing. The chances of having an antiviral or vaccine before
Dyson completes a viable ventilator are also pie in the sky, so pick your
horse and back it, it's all going to be too late for too many.

[0] Italians Found Way to 3-D Print Key Ventilator Piece for $1 to Help Battle
Coronavirus—So the Company With the Patent Is Threatening to Sue
[https://citizentruth.org/italians-found-way-to-3-d-print-
key...](https://citizentruth.org/italians-found-way-to-3-d-print-key-
ventilator-piece-for-1-to-help-battle-coronavirus-so-the-company-with-the-
patent-is-threatening-to-sue/)

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Cantbekhan
And I suppose it "doesn't lose breathing" ? Sorry I had to ...

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ElijahLynn
This title is misleading, first line of article says: "Dyson has announced it
will develop a new type of medical ventilator".

"WILL DEVELOP", NOT "DEVELOPS".

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Glench
Once this pandemic is past, I hope industries will retool the same way in
developing decarbonizing technologies.

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jerome-jh
Hoping it is not as loud as their vacuum cleaners, hand dryers ;)

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wbl
Why can't they copy the old Bird ventilator or similar?

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cityzen
Only $600 per mask!

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annadane
Oh. That Dyson.

~~~
Wistar
Was not a fan until I bought their V10 vac. It is quite amazing at cleaning,
performing much (much) better than any other vac I have ever owned although
with the downside of an insufficient battery.

~~~
GeekyBear
Their products are also built like a tank.

I've gotten 20 years of use out of their original upright vacuum model so far.

~~~
majewsky
I have a 2017 Cinetic Big Ball, and one of the wheels just broke off after two
months. I didn't bother to replace it because it's only a mild inconvenience
(it just requires slightly more force to pull it around) and I'm lazy af.

------
nodesocket
I heard on a major news outlet, "...why are private companies such as Tesla
and Elon Musk able to provide ventilators faster than the US government?"

This should be obvious, private companies don't have red-tape, private
companies for the most part have better talent, and private companies work at
a much higher throughput and level of efficiency. I've stated all along the
solutions to this crisis are going to come from US companies for the most
part, not from government (excluding capital stimulus). For this reason, we
should all be supporting a fiscal package that stimulates business and
corporations to get out of this.

~~~
erikpukinskis
What do you think red tape is?

And why do you think it applies to government workers but not private workers?

