With the suffering from the on-going Coronavirus outbreak, American muscle carmaker Ford has now joined hands with 3M and GE healthcare in order to produce essential medical equipment for all the healthcare workers, first responders and patients fighting the deadly coronavirus. Ford is also planning to produce and distribute over one lakh face shields per week using the company’s in-house 3D printing machine.
Additionally, the company has also developed a PAPR (Powered Air-Purifying Respirators) with 3M which would help the company as well as the first responders in the healthcare sector. The PAPR has been developed using fans from the F-150’s pick-up trucks cooled seat was used along with 3M HEPA filters to create a mask keeping air-borne contamination at bay.
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A portable tool battery will power these respirators for upto eight hours. Ford is planning to produce these respirators at the company’s Michigan facility and Detroit facility eventually boosting the manufacturing.
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As of now, the patients facing respiratory failures will benefit from this simplified ventilator co-developed with Ford and GE healthcare. However, these PAPR could be produced at a Ford facility site along with a GE location as requested by the U.S government officials.
The design team at Ford has also developed and has also started testing their newly developed face shields for medical workers and the first responders. These face shields will fully block the faces and eyes and can be paired with the existing N95 masks and be more effective in order to limit potential exposure to Coronavirus.
Additionally, the designated 1,000 face shields have been scheduled for testing around this week across various hospitals in Detroit and roughly 75,000 of the designated face shields are expected to be finished at Ford’s Troy Design and Manufacturing’s facilities in Plymouth, Michigan.
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