Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University (AUTH) will reportedly start producing 50 respiratory valves every day to help cope with the shortages that could be created due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Athens-Macedonia News Agency reported on Saturday.
The valve is a key component of Venturi oxygen masks, which are connected to ventilators and used to help patients with respiratory diseases like coronavirus Covid-19 breathe.
The Engineering and Mechanical Design Laboratory of the Department of Mechanical Engineering university staff have been placed at the service of the National Public Health Organization (EODY).
“With a sense of responsibility to society, AUTH clearly supports in every possible way the national effort to deal with an unprecedented situation,” Professor Nikos Papaioannou says.
“Producing ventilator valves with this technique that will be used in intensive care for people at risk is not a research or experimental process. And that’s why we announced it after careful consideration and subject to the most stringent criteria,” he added.
“If the existing stocks are exhausted and no critical new part can be replenished with all the necessary certifications, then we can help,” Athanasios Michaelides, Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering added.
Italian additive manufacturing start-up Isinnova also initiated this on March 19, in which they reverse engineered and 3D printed the valves for an overrun hospital in Chiari, a small town in Lombardy which is among the areas worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
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