From Making Automobiles to Ventilators

There is no way to measure the impact of the current crisis on materials, components, and manufacturing. In the computer industry, the disruption of the supply chain can only be compared to the earthquake’s effects that hit Taiwan in 1999.^[1] The 7.7 magnitude shock completely halted the island manufacturing industry which, at the time, was the main source of basic parts such as memory chips, hard drives, LCD panels, and many other computer components. Of significant importance was the damage the quake inflicted on equipment at wafer plants, the building blocks of semiconductor chips.

Twenty years later, as vendors realized they couldn’t rely on one location to make their products, manufacturing components and final products has spread over several countries, mostly in Asia.

However, the current market conditions are not the result of a local, natural event, but instead something much broader, impacting people, businesses, and countries all over the world. The result is that the effects on manufacturing, logistics, and product availability are now being felt the world over.

Healthcare services are the most affected, as they needed to source additional equipment to treat the increased number of patients as well as protect workers against infection.

In particular, there were two types of products in short supply and challenging to obtain: personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators.

All over the world, governments went to the manufacturing industry, asking for help to alleviate the lack of necessary equipment. Many factories, not being able to continue their normal production, started looking for ways to ease the shortage of necessary equipment and adapted production lines to help with the manufacturing of masks, visors, and other PPE.

In particular, car manufacturers immediately started adapting their facilities. Ford said it was helping to increase 3M’s total output of “powered air-purifying respirator” (PAPR) masks.^[2] BYD, the largest electric vehicle manufacturer, repurposed its factory in the Longgang District, Shenzhen, to make 5 million masks per day.^[3]

Also, several maker spaces, such as FabLabs and Fab Cafes, started using their 3D-printing and laser-cutting machines to produce PPE and in some cases ventilator components.

SEAT offers to help produce ventilators

SEAT, the Spanish subsidiary of the Volkswagen group, is headquartered in Martorell, an industrial town just outside of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). The 2,800,000-m² complex employs over 11,000 people and can assemble over 50,000 cars per month.^[4]

On March 14, the Spanish government declared a state of emergency, closing all non-essential businesses, schools, and other facilities. SEAT furloughed most of its workers and started thinking about how to use their expertise and resources to help alleviate the shortage of essential products.

As many other factories in Catalonia were already involved in manufacturing personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, SEAT started toying with the idea of building the much-needed ventilators for emergency use.

A ventilator, also known as a respirator or breathing machine, is a medical device that provides a patient with oxygen when unable to breathe on their own.

Because it was difficult to rely on any existing supply chain, as the current situation also affected most suppliers, SEAT’s engineers knew they needed to use existing parts in stock, plus other ones they could build themselves or source locally.

To design the ventilator, the company contacted one of their engineering partners: the Barcelona-based Protofy. The startup went to work to develop a system, now called OxyGEN that which SEAT could manufacture. Together, they designed the system with the scientific support of several hospitals in Barcelona, including the Hospital Clínic, Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, and the University of Barcelona (UB).

From the start, the project was declared as “open source hardware,” so anyone could download the schematics and documentation to start building similar ventilators anywhere in the world.^[5]

There are two different versions of OxyGEN:

- OxyGEN-M is designed for makers and can be built using standard tools, and no special machinery or materials are needed.

- OxyGEN-IP is the version for industrial-scale production. Foldforming metalworking machinery and engineering knowledge are needed to build it.

SEAT used the assembly line of the Leon compact car. An adapted windscreen wiper motor is the main engine of the ventilator. Each device has more than 80 electronic and mechanical components.

To start production of OxyGEN, 150 SEAT employees from different areas of the company volunteered to work on the assembly line. According to the company, they were able to adapt the line in the record time of one week.

Also, SEAT uses its 3D-printing lab^[6] to produce additional parts for the ventilator. The company has nine printers, including an HP Fusion Jet capable of 3D-printing several hundred parts per day.

To comply with the strict regulations for medical equipment, they had to convert part of the production line into sterile rooms. Worth noting: this whole new manufacturing facility had to be validated by the Spanish Healthcare Administration

In the first week of April, after receiving final approval by the Spanish Agency of Medicine, SEAT delivered the first batch of OxyGEN ventilators to the Barcelona Hospital Clinic. Equally as impressive, it had increased its output to a production volume of 300 emergency ventilators per day.