Mahindra Develops Ventilator Prototype To Fight Coronavirus In Two Days Flat
As India battles the outbreak of Coronavirus, several business leaders have come forward to help in the fight. Anand Mahindra, being one of them, had earlier promised that the teams at Mahindra will be making ventilators to be used in this time of crisis in the country. Within 48 hours of making this announcement, the said teams have started delivering on the promise.
A recent tweet by the chairman of Mahindra Group shows Mahindra teams at the company's Igatpuri and Kandivali factories coming up with the first ventilator prototype in this endeavour. For this, the teams claim to have researched on the Internet for hours on a stretch on the working of ventilators, before coming up with a way to simplify the production process.
The tweet by Anand Mahindra shows a video of the team that was behind the project. The video shows the team explaining their findings and their efforts towards reciprocating the same in making the prototype. Going forward, the team will work on 3 more prototypes based on feedback from experts on the present one. The team estimates a time period of another 2 to 3 days for the same.
So, so proud of our Kandivali & Igatpuri teams who confined themselves to the factories & without sleep produced this in 48hrs. With humility, we will seek guidance from specialists on the usefulness of the device. Whatever the outcome, they have shown India fights back... pic.twitter.com/LrVXm4Acku
¡ª anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) March 26, 2020
Interestingly, the team is also working on automating some of the processes that enable the working of ventilators. Once built, these ventilators are expected to cost around Rs 7,500, a drastically lower price than the regular ventilators that cost upwards of Rs 5 lakh.
Apart from working on these prototypes, Mahindra's engineering team is also working with two big Public sector Undertakings and a ventilator manufacturer to simplify the design of the ventilators as well as scale up the production capacity of the company for the same, as confirmed by Dr Pawan K Goenka, Managing Director at Mahindra & Mahindra.
Ventilator 2: 2 pronged approach. At one end, we along with two large PSUs are working with An existing manufacturer of high spec ventilators to help them to simplify design and scale up capacity. Our engineering team is right now with them working on it. @PMOIndia @MahindraRise
¡ª Pawan K Goenka (@GoenkaPk) March 26, 2020
Dr Goenka further added that the company is also working on automating the Bag Valve Mask ventilator or Ambu bag and hopes to develop the prototype within the next three days.
Mahindra is not the only firm to focus on making ventilators amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, as global auto makers pursue the idea and have started contributing to the cause in their own ways. Renault workers, for instance, have been making masks at home since the company's factories shutdown. Here is all you need to know about it.