Project Inspiration: low-cost mechanical ventilator
Testing and validation of a rapidly manufacturable, low-cost ventilator design based on the East-Radcliffe ventilator from the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden.
Status: complete
People: TU Delft Project Inspiration team
Topics: medical, devices,, mechanical, ventilator,, validation
Date:
Link: External →
During the early COVID-19 pandemic there was a looming risk of mechanical ventilator shortages, especially in less developed regions. The aim of Project Inspiration (TU Delft) was to revisit a simpler mechanical design: the East-Radcliffe ventilator from the 1960s, to rapidly construct mechanical ventilators from simpler materials. The team borrowed the original device from Rijksmuseum Boerhaave (Leiden) and used it as the blueprint for a modern ventilator that can be manufactured quickly from widely available parts and powered with any DC (car) battery. Prototypes were sent to collaborators in Guatemala, Ethiopia, Mexico, and Panama. Later in the pandemic, it became clear that the main constraint was shortages in oxygen supply rather than the ventilators themselves.
The Project Inspiration and the original East-Radcliffe ventilator were later displayed side-by-side at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in the “Besmet” exhibition.
My contribution to this project was to test and validate the system using the UK MHRA Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator System (RMVS). This involved measuring plateau pressure, positive end-expiratory pressure, and tidal volume across various configurations and in simulated patients. I began this project as a student volunteer, and the Measurement report served as my MSc internship in BioMechanical Engineering under supervision of Heike Vallery and Gerwin Smit. The report available upon reasonable request.
Project Inspiration ventilator prototype. A: DC motor, B: gearbox, C: air valve expiration, D: air valve inspiration, E: weights, F: main cam, G: bellow.
