Seat starts producing ventilators

The Spanish VW subsidiary has started manufacturing ventilators. The automaker wants to use this to actively support hospitals during the Corona crisis. The plant is accepting major retrofits.

At the main Martorell plant near Barcelona, ​​ventilator production started, Seat said. 150 employees used an assembly line for the Seat Leon to mass-produce the devices. For this, major conversions were necessary. They wanted to “make a contribution to the relief of the Spanish healthcare system, which was badly hit by the Corona crisis”, it said. The devices are still pending approval. After Italy, Spain is currently the most affected country in Europe by the pandemic.

Not only VW wants to support hospitals

The need for medical technology is great worldwide. In Germany too, companies from outside the industry want to partially convert their production to support hospitals in the face of impending bottlenecks in the treatment of patients with severe Covid 19 courses. Volkswagen itself is also testing to use 3D printers to manufacture parts and plastic elements for ventilators.

Siemens also provides capacities for 3D printers. In the U.S., Ford and General Electric want to manufacture 50,000 ventilators within 100 days. President Donald Trump had also used a wartime law to force General Motors to produce the devices.

– .