The national High Value Manufacturing Catapult is leading a consortium of UK industrial and engineering businesses, including Siemens, Smiths, Thales and Ultra Electronics to design medical ventilators for the UK. Arrow Electronics, Microsoft and Dell are providing support.

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Called the VentilatorChallengeUK Consortium, it is lead by Dick Elsy (right), CEO of the Catapult, who last week deferred his retirement because of the covid-19 outbreak.

The consortium, over the last week, has been investigating production of ventilator designs intended to meet the ‘rapidly manufactured ventilator system’ [RMVS] high-level specification developed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency [MHRA], according to the Catapult.

“The regulator has been involved throughout and we anticipate a straightforward and very prompt regulatory sign off after the final audit,” according to the Catapult. “Companies in the consortium have now received formal orders from the Government in excess of 10,000 units. The consortium will accelerate production of an agreed design, based on existing technologies, which can be assembled from materials and parts in current production.”

Within the consortium is a maker of medical ventilators, which will get manufacturing support to scale up production of an existing ventilator design which has full regulatory approval.

The consortium requests that no one attempts to contact it directly with offers of help, but instead ask that it be contacted through this Government website. “This will mean that if we need help we will be able to source it through that mechanism and, in the meantime, will be able to focus all of our energies on the urgent task of production.”

The VentilatorChallengeUK Consortium:

• Airbus
• BAE
• Ford
• GKN
• High Value Manufacturing Catapult
• Inspiration Healthcare
• Meggitt
• Penlon
• Renishaw
• Rolls-Royce
• Siemens
• Smiths
• Thales
• Ultra Electronics
• Unilever
• Haas F1
• McLaren
• Mercedes
• Red Bull Racing
• Racing Point
• Renault Sport Racing
• Williams

With support from

• Accenture
• Arrow Electronics
• Dell Technologies
• Microsoft
• PTC