(Image source: Ford's official website)
Gaijin? According to foreign media reports, on March 30, Ford said the company will cooperate with General Electric's medical division to produce 50,000 ventilators in the next 100 days in one of its factories in Michigan, after which the company can produce 30,000 ventilators every month according to the market demand so as to treat patients infected with the new coronavirus.
Ford said the simplified version of the ventilator they are producing, which was designed by GE's medical division and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will meet the needs of most COVID-19 patients. And the device requires no electricity and can work on air pressure.
Officials in several U.S. states with severe outbreaks have previously called on the Trump administration and manufacturers to speed up production of the ventilators so they can cope with the surge in patients. Hospitals in New York have begun keeping two patients alive on a single ventilator. Officials in Louisiana have said there is a severe shortage of ventilators in the New Orleans area and that they are only able to meet the needs of a small percentage of patients.On March 27, President Donald?Trump said he would invoke the Defense?Production?Act to directly request that manufacturers including Ford and General Motors manufacturers to start producing respirators.
Ford said it plans to begin production of respirators at a plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where it will deploy 500 UAW employees. The company plans to begin production of the ventilators the week of April 20th. New York state officials estimate that the state will experience a spike in COVID-19 virus infections by then. In addition to New York state, respirators made by car companies such as Ford and General Motors will be used in other U.S. states that are about to experience peak outbreaks.
In addition, Ford and GE engineers are boosting ventilator production capacity at one of the latter's plants in Madison, Wisconsin, where the company expects to double production of ventilators at the Wisconsin plant in the second quarter, Tom?Wesrick, GE's vice president of product quality for the health care division, said in an interview on March 30th.
On March 29, GM said the company plans to make ventilators at its plant in Kokomo, Indiana, which will have a capacity of up to 10,000 units a month this summer.
This article comes from the authors of Automotive House Car Family, and does not represent the views of Automotive House's position.