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The US ventilator companies say they can already ramp up production 5x. They just need the orders. And they can probably make more basic units which might be su

by pkaye 7y ago

The US ventilator companies say they can already ramp up production 5x. They just need the orders. And they can probably make more basic units which might be sufficient https://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2020/03/14/ventilator-maker-we-can-ramp-up-production-five-fold/#5023381e5e9a https://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2020/03/14/ventilator-m...

olalonde 7y ago
Why haven't they? There's a worldwide shortage of ventilators and prices are through the roof.
- pkaye 7y ago
  > The German government just placed an order for 10,000 mechanical ventilators. What’s the U.S. government doing about a potential shortage here? Not much, it seems. President Trump alluded to the matter in a press conference but did not spell out any plans. I guess there is not action at the top level. This is a national emergency and they should be cranking them out like tanks during a war and distribute to where its most needed.
- hanniabu 7y ago
  > They just need the orders.
  - olalonde 7y ago
    > Why haven't they [gotten orders]? Seems hard to believe... Ventilator factories worldwide are operating at full capacity, turning down orders or raising prices, but meanwhile US ventilator companies aren't getting orders?
brian-armstrong 7y ago
Hospitals also need beds and staff to care for patients on ventilators. They could be well-equipped with the ventilators themselves and be bottlenecked on people to operate them.
- pkaye 7y ago
  > Producing a lot of ventilators or masks/gowns very quickly. This will require a lot of repurposing and creativity but thankfully is an engineering problem not a scientific ones. If the bottleneck is the people to operate them then its not an engineering problem.
jonas21 7y ago
Or rather: one small US ventilator company says it can ramp up production by 5x in 3 to 4 months. From your link: “We could increase production five-fold in a 90- to 120-day period,” says Chris Kiple, chief executive of Ventec Life Systems ... The seven-year-old, 135-employee Ventec is a fairly small player in a market dominated by Medtronic (under the Puritan Bennett brand), GE Healthcare and Allied Healthcare in the U.S. Not to mention that there's a big difference between producing ventilators at 5x the current rate and having 5x as many total ventilators available.

by pkaye 7y ago

olalonde 7y ago

Why haven't they? There's a worldwide shortage of ventilators and prices are through the roof.

pkaye 7y ago
> The German government just placed an order for 10,000 mechanical ventilators. What’s the U.S. government doing about a potential shortage here? Not much, it seems. President Trump alluded to the matter in a press conference but did not spell out any plans. I guess there is not action at the top level. This is a national emergency and they should be cranking them out like tanks during a war and distribute to where its most needed.
hanniabu 7y ago
> They just need the orders.
- olalonde 7y ago
  > Why haven't they [gotten orders]? Seems hard to believe... Ventilator factories worldwide are operating at full capacity, turning down orders or raising prices, but meanwhile US ventilator companies aren't getting orders?

brian-armstrong 7y ago

Hospitals also need beds and staff to care for patients on ventilators. They could be well-equipped with the ventilators themselves and be bottlenecked on people to operate them.

pkaye 7y ago
> Producing a lot of ventilators or masks/gowns very quickly. This will require a lot of repurposing and creativity but thankfully is an engineering problem not a scientific ones. If the bottleneck is the people to operate them then its not an engineering problem.

jonas21 7y ago

Or rather: one small US ventilator company says it can ramp up production by 5x in 3 to 4 months. From your link: “We could increase production five-fold in a 90- to 120-day period,” says Chris Kiple, chief executive of Ventec Life Systems ... The seven-year-old, 135-employee Ventec is a fairly small player in a market dominated by Medtronic (under the Puritan Bennett brand), GE Healthcare and Allied Healthcare in the U.S. Not to mention that there's a big difference between producing ventilators at 5x the current rate and having 5x as many total ventilators available.