Driven by an impending shortage of ventilators, TU-researcher Gerwin Smit found inspiration in an English ventilator from the 1960s. Team Project Inspiration rebuilt the machine, keeping each part as simple as possible; the purely mechanical ventilator driver doesn’t require electronics.
Smit thinks that hospitals in the Netherlands will not be needing this ventilator. But the publicly accessible specifications will allow people in low and middle-income countries to build ventilators locally.
Smit found the English "East-Radcliffe Positive-Negative Respirator" from the 1960s in the collection of the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden. Boerhaave Director Haarhuis couldn’t have imagined that modern engineers would call on last century technology, but he does see their project as a confirmation of the value of historic collections of medical technology.
Further information and contact: www.projectinspiration.nl