In view of the dramatic developments in the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries, PTB recently sent a description as well as technical drawings of an auxiliary ventilator to several partner countries, including India and Nepal.
At the initiative of Sebastian Raupach, the “TaBea” semi-automatic resuscitator was developed using a prototype in early 2020 by Frank Schmaljohann and his team who received support from colleagues from different departments at PTB. It uses standard or easily manufactured components and is intended for use in disaster management. As the demand for this type of equipment was decreasing at the time, development did not go beyond the prototype stage. Now that the number of COVID-19 cases in many of PTB’s partner countries has risen again, these documents could serve as a valuable basis for discussion on further development of the ventilator.
The prototype is neither a product in the sense of the German Medical Devices Act nor is it officially intended for use in the medical field in its current form. Before receiving the green light, independent testing and certification would have to take place and approval would have to be granted by a competent body.
Nevertheless, the ventilator could be used in a variety of ways to protect people from the effects of the pandemic. PTB has thus decided to share its work with its partner countries so that the prototype can be further developed on the basis of PTB’s technical drawings.
An overview document which contains a description of the design, the principle and possible ways that the ventilator could be used was recently made available for download on PTB’s COVID-19 homepage. More detailed instructions are available upon request. PTB hopes that this information will be helpful for its partners who are being hit hard by the pandemic.
The overview document can be downloaded here:
https://www.covid19.ptb.de/testing-of-respiratory-equipment
If you are interested in a detailed presentation or the technical drawings, please contact us using this e-mail address:
Image © Sven Ehlers
