Ventilator capable of supplying oxygen to two patients ready for mass production once approval is received
Golden Rock Workshop, Trichy has developed a Non-invasive low-cost ventilator under “Project SWAAS”. It can control Breath per minute (BPM), Tidal Volume (TiV), and Inspiration to Expiration time (IE) ratio. Ensuring full TiV delivery at lowest rate of BPM was a challenging task which was overcome by using one component from a Plasma cutting machine available in the shop floor.
“We analyzed various aspects of the crisis and the requirements. Since we also have a lot of electronic equipment that ventilators needed, we thought we could use these,” says Shymadhar Ram, Chief Workshop Manager of the Golden Rock Workshop.
Shyamadhar Ram added, “We are Late but not out. Due to other assignments on hand, we were asked to go slow on this project. But we kept our objective alive and were focussed.” He also had words of praise for a retired Chief Mechanical Engineer Gopalan who stressed that the staff and officers of GOC were capable of pulling this off.
‘Project SWAAS’ was developed under direct supervision of Dy.CME/Prod. Jithin Nelson assisted by WM/WP & WM/DSL with 6 supervisors from Production and Diesel POH shops.
In house 3D modelling was utilized to test the design. Clinical parameters and functionality were obtained from known Doctors from Railway Hospital – Perambur, Golden Rock, and Madural, besides Govt. Medical college, Kottayam, and AIIMS, Delhi. Final trial was done by Sr.DMO/ Anaesthesia/CRH Ponmalai and cleared on 17.04.2020.
The entire project was completed end to end in a short span of 15 days, even as sourcing of some sensors was difficult.
“We have also innovated a bit by making an adapter. This adapter enables feeding oxygen to two patients simultaneously from a single cylinder. We are sending this ventilator to ICMR for testing and approval in the next few days. Once we receive approval, we plan to enter into serial production of this critical equipment,” signs off the Chief Workshop Manager.
Excellent and thanks to everyone involved in developing this ventilator. These kind of efforts will provide essential infra like ventilator to most and remote hospitals and boost healthcare infra. Infact export options can be explored.