31-03-2020
A multidisciplinary team from NOVA School of Science and Technology (FCT NOVA), from the areas of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, are part of a group of Portuguese volunteers who managed to develop an open-source fan for intensive care, with a production value much lower than standard. A model without the sophistication of the usual ventilators, but which can be very useful in the current circumstances and in many countries.
It is an open-source fan, which can be produced in any geography, with common materials. The details of the development and the equipment have been systemized in a scientific paper.
The idea behind this development is associated with the #ProjectOpenAir, and materialized with the contribution of several personalities and entities, which include, in addition to FCT NOVA, LIP Coimbra, Nova Medical School, ICNAS, the Portuguese Army, Harvard University and two Portuguese engineers working for Formula 1 teams, Redbull Racing and the Haas F1 Team.
The publication of this paper happens after the multidisciplinary team has made a successful proof of concept, in one of the laboratories associated with the project, and the patent has been registered in the name of Humanity so that no entity can derive economic benefits from this innovation.
According to the project's mentors, “the great asset of this fan is that it can be built quickly using cheap and easily accessible components, which means that it can be produced anywhere in the world, at a low price and very quickly. At a time when the world is running out of time to provide itself with the solutions needed to face COVID19, this solution can help us save tens of thousands of lives."
Consult the scientific article available here or here.
Proof of concept
Video of the device 2 in action and explanation of the mechanism (in Portuguese)
