Industrialist develops ventilators

Jalandhar, April 9

Considering the dire need of ventilators amid Covid-19 scare, a Kapurthala-based industrialist has come up with a low-cost prototype.

The newly developed breathing apparatus will also serve the purpose of coping up with the unavailability or shortage of ventilators at various government hospitals and community centres. If successful, around 150 such ventilators would be distributed for free at hospitals facing shortage.

Pritpal Singh, along with his brother Davinder Singh, owners of Hanspal Traders, started designing the ventilator around a week ago. Designed with ‘Server Motion Technology’, the life-saving device would be put to use in the next few days.

Pritpal Singh said the idea to prepare ventilators struck after local MLA Rana Gurjit Singh asked them if they could prepare ventilators. Subsequently, after taking the help of their industrialist friend Harmeet Singh, Pritpal and his brother got access to ‘Computer Numerical Control’ (CNC), using which they tested their first ventilation machine fitted with AMBU bags. Following a few successful testings of the pressure-generating bags, they started assembling other parts of the device. Briefing about the ventilator developed by them, Davinder said their device was equipped with control system, touch panel and adjustable buttons for breathing and pressure. In addition, working on the next step, Pritpal said they were now working on automatic pressure generation system, so that breathing could be controlled according to patient’s need.

Dr Nirvair Singh, anaesthetist at Kapurthala Civil Hospital, said: “We have verified the ventilator developed by the industrialist brothers and concluded that they are working properly, similar to other ventilators at the hospitals. Around 90 per cent work is done and now, we are only focusing on simplifying its life-saving mode, so that it can be priced low.” — TNS