COVID-19 has taken a grip hold on the world over the last few months, but manufacturers are helping the fight back against the virus by transforming their production lines from vehicle manufacturing to building ventilators.
A consortium of manufacturers has been created to help fight against coronavirus by building ventilators. The companies that make up the consortium include:
- Airbus
- BAE Systems
- Ford Motor Company
- GKN Aerospace
- Haas F1
- High Value Manufacturing Catapult
- Inspiration Healthcare Group
- McLaren
- Meggitt
- Mercedes
- Penlon
- Racing Point
- Renault Sport Racing
- Renishaw
- Rolls-Royce
- Siemens Healthineers and Siemans UK
- Smiths Group
- Thales
- Ultra Electronics
- Unilever
- Williams F1
Outside of the consortium, SEAT has recently announced that its famous Martorelli facility has been transformed to manufacturer automated ventilators for local healthcare authorities. The ventilator is being made with printed gears, gearbox shafts and an adapted motor from a windscreen wiper. Each ventilator has more than 80 electronic and mechanical components and undergoes a thorough quality control with ultraviolet light sterilisation.
“Taking an assembly line that manufacturers subframes, a car part, and adapting it to make ventilators has been a length, difficult job involving many areas of the company and we managed to do it in the record time of one week”, says Sergio Arreciado, part of SEAT’s Process Engineering.
In the US, Tesla has also joined Ford and GM in pledging its help towards the production of ventilators to help fight against the shortage stateside.
Check out our guide to how you can still enjoy your car even in lockdown.
