medical equipment Archives

Perodua continues to help key public institutions with contribution to Shah Alam General Hospital

While our healthcare services can be considered pretty good and the rakyat are able to obtain good medical treatment at government hospitals and clinics, the cost is also high for the government. Therefore, the private sector too can play a role in helping in this area and as part of its continuing support given to key public institutions nationwide, it recently contributed medical equipment and gifts worth a total of RM87,967 to the Shah Alam General Hospital in Selangor.

The ongoing initiative is aimed at supporting the efforts by Malaysia’s healthcare frontliners to increase the health service quality nationwide. Perodua donated a free-standing warmer, 3 photolights, a high-tech jellypad, 7 stethoscope neonates, a LSCS set used during caesarean, and 10 surgical scissors to the hospital’s paediatric ward.

“We aspire to be a responsible corporate citizen and we will assist where we can in ensuring consistent and continuous access to medical supplies for hospitals and our entire health care system,” said Perodua’s President & CEO, Dato’ Zainal Abidin Ahmad, at the presentation ceremony.

Helping add value to healthcare system
Adding that Perodua recognises the importance of private-public partnership in enhancing the quality of health service in the country, Dato’ Zainal said the company will continue to communicate with key public institutions and the Ministry of Health to see where it can add value in the country’s healthcare system.

*Besides key public institutions, Perodua has also provided thousands of face-shields to schools and traders at markets to help them have better protection during the pandemic.*

To date, Perodua has contributed medical supplies to public hospitals including Sungai Buloh Hospital, Selayang Hospital, and Sabah Women and Children Hospital in Likas. Additionally, the company has supplied thousands of face-shields (made by one of its subsidiary companies) to schools, traders at markets and government agencies.

Lower-priced childseat now offered by Perodua

War on COVID-19: ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ sees carmakers fast-tracking production of medical equipment

‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ is a saying which is attributed to Plato, the Greek philosopher. And it is certainly true in these times when there is urgent need of medial equipment to save lives as well as protect healthcare personnel.

Many carmakers have initiated and executed projects to design, engineer and manufacture vital Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), doing so faster than normal processes would take. They are using their advanced technologies which can speed up the R&D, and their factories to then produce the items.

Ford, for example, is expanding its efforts to design and produce urgently needed medical equipment. In addition to the current production of more than 3 million face shields, the company is also now making powered air-purifying respirators which were designed in-house.

Gown production
To help further protect healthcare workers, Ford is leading efforts to manufacture reusable gowns with its airbag supplier, Joyson Safety Systems. The go-fast project has created reusable gowns manufactured from material used to make airbags in Ford vehicles.

Production of gowns will reach 75,000 gowns a week by Sunday and scale up to 100,000 gowns for the week of April 19 and beyond. By July 4, Joyson Safety Systems aims to cut and sew 1.3 million gowns which are washable up to 50 times, extending their usage.

Ford worked with Beaumont Health in Metro Detroit to quickly design the gown pattern and test for sizing during fit and function trials. More than 5,000 gowns have already been delivered to the hospital.

The new PAPR
Since late March, Ford manufacturing, purchasing and supply chain experts have been embedded at 3M manufacturing facilities to help increase production of urgently needed products. With this additional help, 3M and Ford were able to increase the output of Powered Air Purifying Respirators and N95 respirators at 3M’s U.S.-based manufacturing facilities.

“By working collaboratively with 3M to quickly combine more than 100 years of Ford manufacturing and engineering expertise with personal protection equipment design and expertise, we’re getting much-needed technology into the hands of frontline medical workers to help when they need it most,” said Marcy Fisher, Ford Director, Global Body Exterior and Interior Engineering.

The newly designed PAPR includes a hood and faceshield to cover healthcare professionals’ heads and shoulders, while a high-efficiency filter system provides a supply of filtered air for up to 8 hours. The air blower system – similar to the fan found in F-150’s ventilated seats – is powered by a rechargeable, portable battery, helping keep the respirator in constant use by first-line defenders.

Producing globally
Besides the USA, faceshield production is also ongoing globally at Ford facilities in Canada and Thailand and with Ford joint-venture partner Mahindra & Mahindra in India. Ventilator pre-production activities are also underway in the UK, where Ford and an industry consortium are preparing to make ventilators.

Ford is providing manufacturing engineering capability, project leadership, purchasing support and assembly of the ventilators at its Dagenham engine plant. This production will help meet demand for 15,000 ventilators ordered by the U.K. government.

War on COVID-19: Proton to produce 60,000 face shields for frontliners

SEAT and Lamborghini factories switch from making cars to vital medical equipment

If you follow news (and who does not?) about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that has swept the planet, you will read about the urgent need by hospitals in every country for medical equipment. The number of cases has been growing very, very fast – in some countries, it doubles every 3 days. Thousands of patients now require intensive care as their condition has become worse. No country was prepared for a crisis of such a scale and so the equipment and facilities were not more than what was thought to be sufficient for the population.

Ventilators are one of the items that are crucial as the patients suffering from COVID-19 have breathing difficulties. The virus attacks their lungs and they need assisted air intake otherwise they will not have enough air for their body. Ventilators can provide such assistance and companies around the world with the capability have been racing to develop and then make ventilators.

SEAT uses its engineering expertise
SEAT, the Spanish carmaker, is one of the companies that has developed automated ventilators with its expertise. Its engineers developed a total of 13 different prototypes were tested before the final design was agreed upon. The team is now testing the ventilators in collaboration with the local healthcare authority to get approval for mass production.

SEAT ventilators — *Parts from SEAT cars have been adapted for use in the ventilators.*

The ventilators – made up of 80 electronic and mechanical components – utilize adapted windscreen wiper motors, gearbox shafts and printed gears. Each ventilator will undergo a thorough quality control check with ultraviolet light sterilization before being shipped out.

The facility where the ventilators will be made produces the new Leon model. 150 employees from different areas will work on modified workstations. “Taking an assembly line that manufactures subframes, a car part, and adapting it to make ventilators has been a lengthy, difficult job involving many areas of the company, and we managed to do it in the record time of one week,” said Sergio Arreciado, a member of SEAT’s Process Engineering team.

Piston.my