A group of Asturian researchers has developed with 3D printing technology a prototype of an automatic respirator that is going to be tested at the Central University Hospital of Asturias in Oviedo. The prototype is functional, there remains clinical validation by HUCA to verify that it is viable and can be applied in ICUs, “On Monday we tried it already. If everything goes well, an attempt will be made to test with an artificial or animal lung ”, described in La Ventana Marcos Castillo, mechanical engineer who leads this project. If this happens, “every three hours, only with our means, we could manufacture a respirator. Only with our means, we are here working on a commercial bass in a bad way. ”
A group of professionals from Asturias have developed a prototype automatic respirator with 3D printing technology
We spoke with the computer engineer Marcos Castillo who leads this group???? pic.twitter.com/WqbO69YSUb– The Window (@laventana) March 20, 2020
–
In addition to Marcos Castillo, the mechanical engineer Juan María Piñera Parrilla, the electronic engineer Carlos Moreno-Luque Suárez and the 3D specialist Bartolomé López Medina work on the respirator. Everyone has been managing the development of this respirator for days. “The idea arose from a Canarian doctor who involved me in the project due to the lack of respirators. AND since Thursday night we are there. We dedicate as many hours a day as possible ”, describes Castillo in La Ventana.
Even the Civil Guard has helped them with one of the pieces. “Yesterday we got stuck at three in the morning. We needed a valve. And thinking and thinking, it occurred to us that the valve resembled the mouthpieces used by the Civil Guard in the breathalyser controls. They had the same diameter. We called the headquarters, they called Madrid and everything was authorized. Comrades from the Civil Guard came and they solved the problem for us ”. At 11:15 p.m., the donation of 100 nozzles of ethometers was arranged. “In this project, it is as important” the one that is soldering cables as the one that is sending you support “, Castillo says.
The respirator documentation is open source so that anyone with a 3D printer can print the pieces from anywhere. “This is a project of people for people”, Marcos Castillo says, “Every thing we have discovered we have been sharing with people. It is an open patent so that no company can profit from this, “he describes.
In the event that the prototype – called the Resistance Team – obtains the validation of the health services, the Government of Asturias, through the Ministry of Science, will enable the procedure to finance the manufacture of the respirators.
–
–
