COVID-19 Ventilator Design & Manufacture

> The Customer – Ventilator Challenge UK (VCUK)
> The Project – Develop a working ventilator to a new Rapid Manufactured Ventilator Specification (RMVS)

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a worldwide shortage of ventilators led the UK government to issue a call to arms to the most innovative companies in the UK manufacturing sector – the Ventilator Challenge UK (VCUK) to quickly develop a working ventilator to the new Rapid Manufactured Ventilator Specification (RMVS) devised by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to address the current requirements.

MetLase knew that meeting the MHRA’s specification would be challenging, so brought together a regulatory compliance team equal in size of their engineering team. Including MetLase’s own compliance lead, and expertise from parent companies Rolls-Royce and Unipart Rail, external contributors included Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, innovation experts CPI and the public health and safety organisation NSF.

Manufacturing and supply-chain activities were led by Unipart Manufacturing, who sourced components and designed production lines within their Coventry
manufacturing facilities.

Additionally, MetLase supported other VCUK partners with design work:
> Meggitt PLC: with the design, manufacturability, and initial production runs of the enclosure for their Spiritus ventilator project.
> Rolls-Royce: MetLase designed and produced 72 bespoke manufacturing workstations in just 10 days, for the new production lines in their Bristol facility, to scale up production of Smiths Medical paraPAC Plus ventilators.
> Cambridge Consultants Ltd: Understanding the detailed workings of a ventilator, and with Unipart Manufacturing’s earlier efforts, MetLase became the preferred manufacturing partner for their Veloci-Vent ventilator.