Dyson is now making CoVent ventilators to combat COVID-19 pandemic

Mention Dyson to anyone on the street and the first thing that comes to mind is their sterling reputation for manufacturing the world’s most powerful cordless vacuum cleaners and their recent forays into haircare like their recently launched Corrale hair straighter and air purifiers but the British company is now leveraging their vast expertise in engineering and technology to create medical ventilators in order to treat coronavirus patients.

Dubbed the Dyson CoVent, the new ventilators were rapidly prototyped and created after a call from the UK government to Dyson owner Sir James Dyson to address the country’s inadequate stockpile of about 5,000 – 8,000 ventilators which, according to forecasts, will be not be sufficient with the rate the COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping the globe. 

[Source The Verge]

Usually, it takes months if not years to bring a product from the drawing board into mass production. Dyson, in collaboration with The Technology Partnership (TTP)  developed the CoVent in just 10 days which is an impressive feat by any measure of the word. While regulatory approval is still being sought for the CoVent for production, the UK government has already ordered 10,000 of them. Dyson is also looking for ways to make the CoVent available internationally.

[Source, Reuters, Fast Company, The Verge]

Here’s the internal email that Sir James Dyson disseminated:

Hospitals are the frontline in the war against Covid-19, where heroic doctors, nurses, and care workers are battling to save lives and help people recover from this terrible virus. As with any battle, there are many challenges to overcome, not least the availability of essential equipment which in this case means ventilators. A ventilator supports a patient who is no longer able to maintain their own airways but sadly there is currently a significant shortage, both in the UK and other countries around the world.

Since I received a call from Boris Johnson ten days ago, we have refocused resources at Dyson, and worked with TTP, The Technology Partnership, to design and build an entirely new ventilator, The CoVent. This new device can be manufactured quickly, efficiently and at volume. It is designed to address the specific clinical needs of Covid-19 patients, and it is suited to a variety of clinical settings. The core challenge was how to design and deliver a new, sophisticated medical product in volume and in an extremely short space of time. The race is now on to get it into production.

The Dyson Digital motor sits at the heart of the new device and the motor’s design is optimised to have a very high level of intrinsic safety, making it particularly well-suited for industrial, high volume production. The device is designed to achieve a high quality air supply to ensure its safety and effectiveness, drawing on our air purifier expertise which delivers high-quality filtration in high-volume products.

Ventilators are a regulated product so Dyson and TTP will be working with the MHRA and the Government to ensure that the product and the manufacturing process is approved. We have received an initial order of 10,000 units from the UK Government which we will supply on an open-book basis. We are also looking at ways of making it available internationally.

I am proud of what Dyson engineers and our partners at TTP have achieved. I am eager to see this new device in production and in hospitals as soon as possible. This is clearly a time of grave international crisis, I will therefore donate 5,000 units to the international effort, 1,000 of which will go to the United Kingdom.

We will keep you updated with our progress.