OUR PART IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

Well, we have been busy, and very proud of our part in the fight against Covid-19

If you have been following the news feeds for the past six weeks, you will have undoubtedly seen and heard of the genius intervention by the Mercedes F1 team alongside the University College London engineers. Their role was to take up the challenge to build a much-needed device that delivers oxygen to the lungs without needing a ventilator.

Continuous Positive Airway Press or CPAP devices are commonly used in UK hospitals. However, at the start of the pandemic, they were in short supply. The need for extra respiratory support was well documented and the NHS, as well as the worldwide healthcare sector desperately needed a quick and robust solution, given the impending escalation of the disease.

The machine itself is a design that is regularly used in the treatment of 'Sleep Apnea, with the ability to support patients with severe breathing problems, freeing up ventilators for those that are critically ill.

Unprecedented supply chain response

The most prominent feature of the project was the urgency, and how quickly the engineers at the university and Mercedes F1 could design and manufacturer a device of this nature.

Following the task of reverse engineering an existing product and producing a new design, they very swiftly managed to move to full production in under ten days. Within a month, 10,000 devices had been delivered to meet the UK demand. A further week on, and the device had been shared with more than 1,300 teams in 25 countries.

DK-Daleba had one small but essential part in the manufacture of the device, and that was to manufacture specified PCB boards for SST Sensing who were a critical part of the supply chain, commissioned to build and supply oxygen sensors for the CPAP device.

Undoubtedly, to respond and manufacture such important technology in unprecedented times will be a feature of 2020 right across the worldwide healthcare supply chain. For DK-Daleba, we are incredibly proud of our part and how quickly our team reacted. We were also proud to have worked with SST Sensing, and being part of an incredibly important project in the fight against Covid-19.

Date : 12-05-2020