An Italian engineering company has hacked ordinary $20 snorkeling masks to create highly sought after ventilator masks with some simple 3-D-printed parts, giving a huge boost to hospitals in short supply of ventilation equipment to treat CCP virus patients.
The company Isinnova, located in the northern province of Lombardy, devastated by the virus, came up with the ingenious solution after having first figured out how to 3-D print a valve, “which connects the patient to the breathing machine, mixing pure oxygen with air that enters through a rectangular window,” they said, per New York Times. Their modification for the valve, which has to be replaced for each patient, was so successful that they ended up making over 100.
From there, their even-more-creative response to the ventilator shortage was to modify an ordinary piece of snorkeling equipment from European sporting goods company Decathlon “to fix the possible shortage of hospital C-PAP masks for sub-intensive therapy, which is emerging as a concrete problem linked to the spread of Covid-19,” per Isinnova’s website. Testing in the hospital proved successful and now the startup is manufacturing more and sharing the design, all free of charge to help beleaguered hospitals in Italy and around the world.
The Italian startup had never worked with medical products before, instead producing things like “earthquake sensors, silicone bandages, [and] bicycles,” per the Times, but CEO Christian Fracassi was more than happy to help. As he and fellow engineer Alessandro Romaioli wrote, “A few of our friends are hospitalized from the coronavirus, with many more in quarantine at home. Hundreds of people have died here.”
So when the company was first approached by the Brescia hospital, through the intermediary of local journalist Nunzia Vallini, about the shortage of Venturi valves for ventilators, they were willing to take on the challenge. Making the valves to specification wasn’t easy; Fracassi told the BBC, “The valve has very thin holes and tubes, smaller than 0.8m—it’s not easy to print the pieces.”
However, with the company’s six 3-D printers working non-stop, they were able to make and deliver 100 of the vital parts. Each valve costs about 1 euro (US$1.10); Fracassi told Reuters, “I’m not going to charge the hospital ... It was the least I could do to help doctors and nurses who work all day long to save human lives.”
After being contacted by Dr. Rentao Favero with the idea of turning snorkeling masks into handy ventilators, the engineers contacted Decathlon, which shared a computer-aided design (CAD) drawing of their Easybreath mask. After taking apart the mask, the engineers came upon the idea of “a new component ... to guarantee the connection to the ventilator. We called the link Charlotte valve, and we quickly printed it using 3D printing,” as Isinnova explained on its website.
The modification involves removing the vent valve cover then taking the membrane that would normally keep water out and putting it inside to keep air in. After replacing the cover and removing the snorkel mouthpiece, the engineers insert the 3-D-printed valve to help connect it to readily available breathing machines like the C-PAP.
Isinnova notes that while the local hospital has been extremely grateful for the devices, they are not certified as bio-medical devices, and patients have to sign a declaration acknowledging this before receiving ventilation with the hacked mask.
The site explains that the company is patenting the valve “to prevent any speculation on the price of the component. We clarify that the patent will remain free to use, because it is in our intention that all hospitals in need could use it if necessary.”
On their website, other 3-D-printing companies can find instructions and files for the design to print it themselves, which they hope will help other hospitals in desperate need of ventilators. The engineers behind the timely invention wrote in the Times, “In a moment of crisis, and in a moment when commerce globally is shutting down, there are still many do-it-yourself ways of helping the people around you.”
The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.
