Mercedes Formula 1 team to provide coronavirus breathing devices to NHS this week

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Mercedes Formula 1 team are helping make breathing devices for the NHS
JAMES TYE/University College London (UCL)/AFP via Getty Images)
Kit Heren7 April 2020

Mercedes Formula 1 team will begin deliveries of breathing devices to the NHS this week in response to a Government appeal to manufacturers to help with the UK's coronavirus outbreak.

The new Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices will help coronavirus patients with lung infections to breathe more easily.

They were developed by Mercedes engineers, University College London (UCL) and doctors at UCL Hospital - and gained regulatory approval last week after a "round-the-clock effort", Formula 1 said.

The team is now using machinery that is usually devoted to building pistons and turbocharger to make up to 1,000 breathing devices every day, according to Formula 1.

Mercedes engineers have shifted from car maintenance to designing breathing devices 
AFP via Getty Images

Andy Cowell, Managing Director of Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, said: “Since the project was announced, we have received an incredible number of enquiries about the CPAP device from around the world.

“Making the design and manufacturing specifications available on an ‘open source’ basis will allow companies around the world to produce these devices at speed and at scale to support the global response to Covid-19.”

The CPAP devices are usually for patients whose problems are less severe than those who need ventilators.

CPAP devices are for patients who are less severely ill than those who need ventilators 
POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Professor David Lomas, UCL Vice Provost Health, said: “These life-saving devices will provide vital support to the NHS in coming weeks, helping to keep patients off ventilators and reducing demand on intensive care beds and staff.

“It is a phenomenal achievement that they are arriving at hospitals only two weeks after the first prototype was built. It shows what can be done when universities, hospitals and industry work together for the national good.”