Engineers from Krakow have developed an open-source ventilator that can be reproduced by a 3D printer in order to help medical professionals around the world in the fight against coronavirus, footage from Monday shows.
The Polish-based company, Urbicum, has published the instructions of "Ventilaid" on their website so anyone with a 3D printer and access to "basic parts" can make their own version of the product.
The 3D parts of the ventilator need about 15 hours to be fully printed.
"The entire project is made available on an open source basis, because we think selling such devices at this time would be very unethical," said Szymon Chrupczalski, engineer and designer.
The company states that the cost of the components necessary to build Ventilaid should not exceed 44 Euros. Clinical testing of the product has yet to be completed, but the team is already discussing launching trials of the product with medical experts in many countries. In the meantime, the team have stressed that the device should only be used as a last resort when hospital resources have become exhausted.
"We want to help doctors, we want to help patients who will not be able to access any other medical equipment," Chrupczalski added.
Urbicum is currently working on a second prototype of VentilAid, project whose tagline is: "From Poland with love".
A ventilator, also known as "artificial lung", is a machine that helps a patient breathe and has been crucial on saving lives amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
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