COVER STORY
INDUSTRY’S
PANDEMIC
RESPONSE
If there have been positives to
be drawn from the ongoing
Covid-19 pandemic, one
has surely been the way in
which Irish engineering
and industry have come
together to help deliver a response.
This response has taken many
forms, from provision of ventilators
via PPE manufacture to the supply of
hand sanitiser. In all its forms,
however, it has represented a huge
and laudable eff ort. This article will
seek to off er a showcase for as many
of these stories as possible.
The Monaghan-based manufacturer
Combilift, although best known for
its range of space-saving forklifts and
other handling solutions, has drawn
on its expertise in engineering and
software design to develop the
Combi-Ventilate, a splitter device
which turns one ventilator into
multiple ventilation stations.
Designed to address the
requirements of medical professionals
in the current Covid-19 emergency
the Combi-Ventilate was developed
by a team of mechatronic and
software engineers in the past fi ve
weeks with a unit currently
undergoing laboratory tests with Ger
Curley, professor of Anaesthesia &
Critical Care at the Royal College of
Surgeons in Beaumont hospital,
Dublin.
Martin McVicar, CEO and cofounder
Combilift said: “Certain
countries and cities are struggling to
get enough ventilators and many
governments and health authorities
are encouraging manufacturers to
come up with a solution, as did the
HSE in Ireland. Instead of actually
developing ventilators we analyzed
18 » JUNE 2020 » WWW.MADEIN.IE
It is no exaggeration to say that industry has played and is
playing a key role in the response the Covid-19 pandemic.
Here, we look at some of those stories.
what is really required, as we do in
our usual business models.”
The Combi-Ventilate uses standard
pipes and fi ttings for easy assembly
and its individual patient fi lters
prevent cross contamination. Each
patient has a dedicated screen which
allows medical professionals to
individually monitor their vital
information. This includes live
values, data on patient history and
statistics and adjustable alarm
settings. Features include non-return
valves, HEPA fi lters, fl ow sensors and
an automatic fl ow control valve. Any
abnormalities that occur are detected
and will only trigger that specifi c
patient’s alarm.
The Combi-Ventilate has
automatically adjustable fl ow control
valves that allow the health service
professional control the tidal volume
to each patient electronically without
having to make manual adjustments.
“We have made Combi-Ventilate
under the same ethos and with the
same objective as we do with all our
the Combilift products – which is all
about doing more with less,” says
McVicar.
“We have undertaken this nonprofi
t endeavour in order to meet and
facilitate the demands of the global
crisis for health services around the
world, the lack or shortage of
ventilators. The medical device sector
is not our core business but making
critical equipment which keeps
people safe and alive has always been
our focus and this latest project,
driven by our desire to help during
Combilift’s Combi-Ventilate machine
/WWW.MADEIN.IE