For COVID-19 Challenge BITS Pilani Alumni Ventures PARC - Clearpack Respond with Ventilator RESPIMATIC 100

Imagine just three days for three iterations of a new respirator design starting from scratch with a geographically dispersed team. Just add one more week to perform three iterations of working prototypes undergoing continuous testing for the past few days. All this happening under strict lockdown orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. How is this possible when it takes over 100 man-years to design full featured ICU ventilators? Here is the rest of the story.

Clearpack https://www.clearpack.com/ is a Singapore based technical powerhouse and a world leader in designing and deploying custom Packaging machines for various FMCG industries with one of its factories in Greater Noida in India. PARC https://atmanirbhar.org/ Pilani AtmaNirbhar Resource Center, is a social incubator and service provider with the mission of community development in and around Pilani, Rajasthan. So, what do these two organizations have in common? Nothing, except that both were founded and are run by BITS Pilani alumni. And that's the spark that lit a fire!

During the COVID-19 lockdown period when the need for low cost, rapidly designed, stripped down ventilators became apparent, these two powerhouses got together to take on the task online. Led brilliantly by Clearpack CEO, Govind Bhandari, a geographically dispersed team was quickly assembled to complement the talented Clearpack workforce. Four doctors to advice on the clinical aspects, a ventilator design veteran (also a BITS alumnus) to advice on the technical aspects, a medical electronics expert from Italy and various others to fill the different roles required.

The team included Gopal Bhandari, Smartfactoryworx, for Design management; Distinguished Alumnus of BITS Pilani Big Chief Sunil Nanda, PARC, for Project initiation and constant guidance; Proud to be BITSians Vijayasimha Ajarananda for Technical Mentorship, Ajay Nayak Ret IAS for help with Government Procedures and Sanjeev Lodha Dynamic Elecpower Bhilwara for help in sourcing components; Enrico Barbiani for Electronics Wizardry; Brig Dr Rakesh Gupta, Dr Manabendra Baidya, Dr Nazia Nazir, Government Institute of Medical Sciences, Greater Noida, for expert medical advice; Dr Yash Javeri, Regency Super Specialty Hospital, Lucknow, for expert medical advice; Dr Rohit Yadav, Nayati Medicity Mathura, for expert medical advice; Mrinmoy, Om Singh & Entire Clearpack team for superb execution and Unilever team for their encouragement

In addition to the technical challenges, there were some unique challenges posed by the lockdown orders in force. Factories were closed, technical teams could not meet face-to-face, important components could not be sourced etc. This is where the vast BITS alumni network came into play. All these issues were tackled and resolved on a war footing by connecting with Proud to be BITSians who were uniquely qualified for the task at hand. One must also acknowledge the facilitation by the Greater Noida authorities which was crucial to this project specially Narendra Bhooshan, IAS CEO, Greater Noida & Incharge of Covid19 operations for G B Nagar and Anil Kumar, Dy Commissioner industries, G B Nagar.

The result is that today the team has a working prototype of RESPIMATIC 100, a low-cost emergency respirator system that has been undergoing stress tests continuously for the past number of days. And holding up extremely well! The RESPIMATIC 100 is designed to fit in the huge capability gap between a hand powered Artificial Manual Breathing Unit - AMBU Bag and a full featured ventilator. There are many situations where a complex ventilator is either unavailable or unaffordable but a hand powered Ambu bag falls way short of the need.

The need for such a device will continue well beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic especially in remote parts of India. No doubt it will need refinement as it undergoes tests. No doubt that the certification process is arduous. No doubt there will be unexpected challenges. But that is what this team is geared up for. All in all, a great example of what large hearts, determination and collaboration can do and should be called Serendipity by Design.

A video of the system under test can be viewed at https://youtu.be/MujYSm76jMY

For PARC Sunil Nanda Email: sunil.nanda at yahoo.com Phone +91 9845067434
For Clearpack : 67 Ubi Road 1 #10-06 Oxley Bizhub, Singapore - 408730. singaporesales@clearpack.com

Pilani Chronicle covers news about happenings in Pilani including achievements of Proud to be BITSians who are alumni from institution of eminence BITS Pilani spread across all latitudes, longitudes and altitudes.

This release was published on openPR.