Gimmick Or Savior: Tesla Is Leading The Trend Of Breathing Machine Transformation In The Automotive Industry?

The new crown epidemic is still rampaging around the world. As of 22:30 Beijing time on April 13th, the number of confirmed cases has exceeded 1 million 860 thousand, of which the number of confirmed cases in the United States has reached 550 thousand, while several major European powers have already exceeded 100 thousand.

In Europe and the United States, compared to the mask of Luo Yang's paper, the serious shortage of respirators is the fresh life under the breakdown of medical resources.

Who will be the hero of this era?

Perhaps it is one of those business genius who seems to be able to land everywhere, seemingly omnipotent, and Silicon Valley iron man musk.

The exclusive Tesla ventilator?

In April 6th, Tesla, who was founded by musk, released a video of less than 4 minutes in length on YouTube, with only one theme: Tesla ventilator.

According to the Engineer in the video, the prototype first compressed the gas that meets the medical standard into the cylindrical oxygen mixing chamber, and the cylindrical mixing chamber and its matching air pressure regulator apparently come from the air suspension system of Model S. After that, the throttle valve, which is responsible for generating pressure waves, will pass through a series of sensors, such as flow rate, pressure sensors, and filtration system, and then enter the lung of the patient. To ensure the visualization of key indicators such as pressure and flow, engineers used the central touch screen of Model 3 infotainment system. Through the aspirated frequency, pressure waveform and other indicators, the doctor can not only real-time judge the aspirated breath of the patient's lung, but also match the personalized matching of the key parameters with the throttle valve.

The biggest feature of Tesla breathing machine is that the engineers of musk used genius like ideas to create the ventilator prototype by using the existing parts in hand.

Lars Moravy, vice president of Tesla engineering, said in the video: "we can help the medical institutions without occupying the resources of medical equipment, avoiding the supply chain of traditional ventilator manufacturers in the production process."

In addition to the prototype, Mask said on twitter that Tesla plans to restart the buffalo plant in New York and work with the Irish ventilator maker Medtronic (Medtronic) to produce ventilators.

Is it a good job to provide timely help or speculation?

However, this does not mean that Tesla breathing machines can really save New York and the United States.

In fact, the complicated electromechanical integration prototype design plus the assembly and assembly of the existing parts can be completed under the majority of PhD leaders in the first-class engineering colleges. At present, the E-Event of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the VESper project of South Carolina University are developing similar prototypes. The six Mercedes AMG team engineer of the formula one competition has also developed the ventilator prototype in the shortest time.

According to the interview conclusion of Auto Motor Sport to Department of respiration doctors, Tesla ventilator is more suitable for use as portable respirator. If final mass production is available, the ventilator is suitable for ambulance and auxiliary respiratory equipment on the way to hospital. But at present, the key to determining the death rate of the new crown patients is the large fixed invasive ventilator in the intensive care unit.

Generally speaking, medical ventilator is divided into two categories: Non-Invasive Ventilaton (NIV), non-invasive ventilator and Invasive Mechanical Ventilation (IMV), invasive ventilator. Noninvasive ventilator supplies oxygen through the airtight mask worn on the patient's face, while the invasive oxygen tube of the ventilator needs tracheotomy. In addition, it is regarded as the ultimate weapon and the most sophisticated ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), commonly known as "Ye Ke membrane" or "artificial lung".

Compared to the Tesla ventilator, which focuses on key indicators such as gas pressure and aspirated frequency, the professional invasive ventilator needs to adjust the oxygen concentration (up to 90% of the oxygen content, not 21% of the oxygen content of the atmosphere), atomization and humidification, and control the humidity to the appropriate temperature according to the patient's personal condition, so as to ensure the maximum support of the lung. If the patient's condition improves, the ventilator needs to gradually reduce the oxygen concentration so that patients can adapt themselves to breathing again.

A series of complex parameter settings and combinations make it difficult for nurses and doctors to operate such respirators independently. Under normal circumstances, such respirators are required to be operated by the manufacturer's specialist or specially trained physician. The matching medical knowledge is also unable to be provided by car manufacturers independently.

Whether Tesla has guided or communicated with medical institutions or medical equipment providers is still unknown.

Earlier, German ventilator manufacturer Delger (Dr? Gerwerk) openly questioned the capacity of the car factory to produce ventilators, and Delger is also the largest ventilator manufacturer in China. In Delger's view, the core of the ventilator is not the pneumatic element, but the electronic system and software system that controls the pneumatic components.

According to the experience of software development, it is impossible to develop and debug a new software system independently in just a few months.

Another problem facing Tesla ventilator is that the regulatory authority's standards for medical equipment are more stringent than those of the existing automotive industry standards such as ISO 26262. Although the US Food and Drug Administration FDA has said it will relax its regulatory standards for ventilators to make rapid increase in ventilators' production, it usually takes two to three years for the review process to catch up with the speed of confirmed cases in the United States.

Tesla also did not provide a timetable for its ventilator production.

Drew Cuomo, New York, Changan also said that Tesla's ventilators were unable to prepare for the peak of New York's epidemic.

Musk and his Tesla, another controversial place, are Musk's high profile on twitter, saying that he will be forced to play the "grandfather" after he shelved the ventilator.

Earlier, Mask bought thousands of masks from China and donated 1255 ventilators to Lincoln hospital in New York. However, according to the New York Times, part of the equipment donated by Tesla is actually a dual level positive airway pressure machine (Bi-PAP) for the treatment of sleep apnea.

Although musk insisted that Bi-PAP could provide respiratory support for patients with respiratory diseases, such noninvasive ventilator had no effect on the new crown. A previous case in Washington, D.C., used C-PAP (continuous positive airway pressure, Bi-PAP subtraction form), which led to the spread of the new crown virus.

In addition, the plan of ventilator conversion at Buffalo factory in New York is not so simple. As a battery factory under Matsushita joint venture, the factory received $750 million in state subsidies at the early stage of its establishment. After announcing its withdrawal from Tesla last month, it is also the best solution for Tesla to pay a fine of $41 million by ensuring the number of employees employed by the name of the ventilator.

As for Tesla's cooperation with Medtronic, Medtronic officials only confirm that SpaceX, another company of musk, is supplying valves and other components, and there is no conclusion on the cooperation between ventilators.

Traditional car factory: steady "old folks"

Tesla may be the brightest star in the boom of motor vehicle manufacturers, but in fact, it is far more than the Tesla family in the production of ventilators, many of which have even gone further.

As an opponent of Tesla in the US market, Ford and general motors are a steady and steady representative. Unlike Tesla's DIY program, Ford and general motors have chosen to cooperate with regular ventilators.

Ford, the fastest growing company, has been authorized by Airon, a Florida ventilator manufacturer and approved by FDA, with the expertise of GE Healthcare. It is licensed to manufacture portable pNeuton Model A respirator.

The model ventilator has large area of mold electric components, only with switch and turntable control mechanism, and does not have real-time monitoring function such as electronic screen. Compared with the invasive ventilator that started at $50 thousand, the number of components of the ventilator dropped from 1000 to 300.

According to Ford's plan, the company will cooperate with the United Auto Workers Union UAW in April 20th and put in 500 employees to start production in Michigan factories. It is expected that the output will reach 1500 by the end of April, and the output will reach 50 thousand units before the beginning of July. The capacity after the independence day will be stabilized at 30 thousand units per month. Arion, the original manufacturer of the ventilator, had less than 100 monthly capacity.

As for GM, which was previously accused by Trump of being a vain attempt to make fortune in twitter, it is also working with Ventec Life Systems, a Washington based ventilator manufacturer, to produce a simplified version of Ventec's VOCSN intensive care ventilator in its Indiana factory.

At present, GM has obtained the order of 30 thousand ventilator orders designated by the Trump administration in the national defense production act. GM expects to deliver hundreds of ventilators by the end of April, and the monthly capacity will be stable at more than 10 thousand units after June.

Germans are more stable than Americans. 。

Perhaps because the German engineer Association VDI and the German machinery industry association VDMA have all held a negative attitude toward the transformation of the car factory, or because the death toll in Germany is far lower than that in other western countries. The German enterprises, led by the masses, focus on providing respirator masks, air filters and other spare parts businesses for ventilator manufacturers.

Hannover's VW Motorsport, Wolf fort headquarters, and Audi headquarters, Ingolstadt, and Volkswagen Group, more than 50 3D printing equipment are fully ventilator respirators, protective clothing and other accessories. In addition to sewing masks, the Lamborghini Bologna factory of the group has also joined the team of 3D print masks. The Skoda factory in Czech and Prague has successfully worked out a 3D printing scheme with the European standard FFP3 mask (N99), while in Barcelona's Martorell Seiya factory, Volkswagen has successfully started on the Leon production line a week ago. A simple respirator is assembled, but the ventilator needs the final approval of the Spanish health department.

Combined with the experience of Ford, general motors and Volkswagen, perhaps the cooperation between car companies and professional ventilator manufacturers is the right way to open up the contribution of the automobile industry to medical institutions under the current epidemic situation.

As CEO Mick Farrell, a ventilator manufacturer based in San Diego, California, said, breathing machines can be better used in Tesla's lithium batteries. However, resi did not disclose whether there was any plan to cooperate with Tesla.

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