
Government orders 10k ventilators from Dyson - mgreenleaf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52043767
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bacon_waffle
"Meanwhile, the consortium of medical, military and civil engineering
companies - which includes Airbus, Meggit, GKN and others - is working to ramp
up the production of an existing design."

This is such a relief!

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lnsru
“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.

~~~
ekianjo
> 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.

~~~
mygo
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.

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DanBC
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](https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1242949236762738692)

These are the kinds of things that we will have to hold the government to
account for at some point.

~~~
altacc
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"

~~~
DanBC
Yes, but those 8000 orders are piecemeal from any supplier that has any kind
of stock, a few hundred here, a few dozen there. There's not a coordinated
drive to support those manfs to increase their production.

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.

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bobowzki
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.

~~~
ksangeelee
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.

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

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midgetjones
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.

~~~
arethuza
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...](https://www.ft.com/content/4cc667f2-6ee2-11ea-89df-41bea055720b)

~~~
viklove
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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amlozano
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?

~~~
ksangeelee
Here is the very high level specification that the government has provided. It
refers to various further specifications and regulations that the device must
comply with in order to be accepted by medics.

[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/874279/RMVS001_Rapidly_Manufactured_Ventilator_Specification__PDF.pdf)

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.

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dirtyid
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.

~~~
6nf
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.

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

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

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dmos62
Are there estimates for how many ventilators coutries are targeting?

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MatthewWilkes
Well, at least the Dyson PR department is working hard. Shame their tech is
shoddy at best.

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jonplackett
CoVent™

Excellent naming.

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KaiserPro
withouth a meaningful time line, this is all noise.

its a totally new design, which means its going to have to be re-certified.

The UK has had 2 months head start, 1 month if you take italy as a warning, 2
if you treat the "YOLO LETS JUST LET IT BURN THROUGH THE POPULACE."as a
starting point.

