Ventilators being made at Harwell Campus to combat coronavirus

The Science and Technology Facilities Council group at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is leading training for others to carry out testing and calibration of the new ventilators.

Members of STFC staff will train about 300 people from a range of organisations taking part in the project.

The newly-trained testers will use their skills at the facility producing the new ventilators before the simple device is deployed in hospitals.

READ AGAIN: Harwell Campus gets £81m in spring budget

Anna Orlowska, Director of Technology for STFC, has been organising this effort.

She said: “I have been overwhelmed by the number of staff who are eager to help with this project, and it shows what a fantastic, skilled and enthusiastic workforce we have in the National Laboratories, who are keen to put their skills to use for such a good cause.”

The first four ‘super trainers’ come from across STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Diamond Light Source.

John Crawford from ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Angela George from Diamond Light Source, Phil Rice from the Central Laser Facility and Mark Anderson from RAL Space spent the weekend at the production facility developing a training manual to be used by other STFC expert trainers.

READ AGAIN: Shout out to community hero working in self-isolation

During the evenings this week, these four will train a further 30 STFC staff members to ensure that all are capable of training others by the time the ventilators come off the production line.

Mark Anderson, RAL Space ‘super trainer’ said: “To be invited to be part of a team of people and businesses that have been able to redesign and develop a ventilator that will be used to save lives is fantastic. For me it goes to show that with a common goal the UK can pull its business skills together to overcome a challenge.”

The test itself takes 30-40 minutes to carry out and involves testing the pressure and air flow through the ventilator while it inflates/deflates a set of steel 'lungs'.

The team has to follow social distancing rules to ensure the health of those taking part in the project, restricting the number of people who can be trained at one time.

One of the major challenges for the UK in facing the pandemic is the production of ventilators, to keep patients with respiratory difficulties out of intensive care.

READ AGAIN: Coronavirus deaths increase by almost 600

The medical equipment manufacturer Penlon, based in Abingdon, already supplies the NHS with machines used by anaesthetists in operating theatres.

Once it became clear that the demand for ventilators was going to increase dramatically, the company developed a simpler device that can be mass produced and used on a ward as a ventilator: breathing for a patient when they are unable to do it themselves.

Penlon is part of a consortium, VentilatorChallengeUK, of over 20 companies including Airbus, Ford and McLaren, who will produce the ventilators on a large scale.

Before the tens of thousands of ventilators can be used by the NHS, they need to be tested and calibrated, to ensure they can be delivered under the company’s medical licence.

STFC is also supporting urgent efforts to fight Covid-19 in other ways.

This includes involvement in scientific research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus (that causes the disease COVID-19) through the UK’s national synchrotron Diamond Light Source, co-funded by STFC, which is looking at potential drug targets and proteins that represent potential weak points of the virus.