ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd in Canada has partnered with Graphene Composites to develop a virucidal graphene-based composite ink that can be applied to fabrics including N95 face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) for significantly increased protection.

Under the collaboration, Graphene Composites have devised a silver nanoparticle/graphene oxide ink formulation that ZEN has synthesised at their lab in Guelph, Ontario, that has been documented by previous researchers to kill earlier versions of coronavirus.

Once testing is completed, the GC/ZEN graphene ink would be incorporated into a fabric to be included in masks and filters designed by Graphene Composites.  Efficacy testing of the silver-graphene oxide-based ink to kill the COVID 19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) will be conducted at the University of Western Ontario ImPaKT Facility Biosafety Level 3 lab. In addition, the graphene ink will be tested to kill influenza A and B viruses at Biosafety Level 2 labs in the UK and US.

Graphene Composites has also announced an alliance with G-Form, an athletic protective gear manufacturer in the USA who pivoted its Smithfield, RI. manufacturing plant to the production of PPE face shields and has already produced more than 1 million units.

No solution currently exists to effectively pre-treat athletic equipment, apparel or footwear prior to practices and games. This pre-treatment will not only absorb Coronavirus droplets, it will eliminate them. This also applies to gyms and fitness centres throughout the world. Developing this added layer of protection is the very essence of why and how these companies with Rhode Island roots are working together.

The products are being tested at leading Universities and laboratories in both the UK & US, with patents pending. Once complete and successful, EPA approvals and production will immediately follow.

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More than twenty 3D printers are working day and night. Hundreds of visors have already been produced and dispatched to hospitals close to the Airbus facilities in Spain. Airbus leverages a patented design to manufacture the visor frames, using PLA plastics. 

Overnight, we have gone from making aerospace concepts to medical equipment. This genuinely makes a difference in the fight against the pandemic and I couldn’t be prouder of our teams working day and night on this Airbus project.

Alvaro Jara, Head of Airbus Protospace, in Getafe, Madrid

Despite the pause of the majority of production at Airbus’ sites in Spain following the Royal Decree of 29 March, Airbus employees are allowed on site to continue with this essential activity. 

In addition, Airbus in Germany also joined the project. The Airbus Protospace Germany and the Airbus Composite Technology Centre (CTC) in Stade, together with the 3D-printing network named “Mobility goes Additive,” are now supporting this project in Spain, also coordinating the collection and transport of visors to the Madrid region. 

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Work will be carried out by personnel of the saddlery that produces the interiors and special customisation for Lamborghini cars, producing 1,000 masks a day, while 200 medical shields will be made a day, using 3D printers within the company’s carbon fibre production plant and the Research and Development department.

The activity has been approved and supported by the Emilia-Romagna Region and is taking place in collaboration with the University of Bologna. The Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences will oversee validation testing of the medical devices made by Lamborghini, prior to their delivery to the hospital.

We will win this battle together by working in unison, supporting those who are at the forefront of fighting this pandemic every day

Stefano Domenicali, Chairman and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini

As a sign of unity and support for the entire nation facing the Coronavirus emergency, every evening Lamborghini lights up the historic headquarter buildings in Sant’Agata Bolognese, with the colours of the Italian flag.

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In experiments with motor-powered systems that mimic such devices – called exoskeleton emulators – the researchers investigated two different modes of running assistance: motor-powered assistance and spring-based assistance.

The mere act of wearing an exoskeleton rig that was switched off increased the energy cost of running, making it 13 per cent harder than running without the exoskeleton. However, the experiments indicated that, if appropriately powered by a motor, the exoskeleton reduced the energy cost of running, making it 15 per cent easier than running without the exoskeleton and 25 per cent easier than running with the exoskeleton switched off.

In contrast, the study suggested that if the exoskeleton was powered to mimic a spring there was still an increase in energy demand, making it 11 per cent harder than running exoskeleton-free and only 2 per cent easier than the non-powered exoskeleton.

If future designs could reduce the energy cost of wearing the exoskeleton, runners may get a small benefit from spring-like assistance at the ankle, which is expected to be cheaper than motor-powered alternatives.

The frame of the ankle exoskeleton emulator straps around the user’s shin. It attaches to the shoe with a rope looped under the heel and a carbon fibre bar inserted into the sole, near the toe. Motors situated behind the treadmill (but not on the exoskeleton itself) produce the two modes of assistance – even though a spring-based exoskeleton would not actually use motors in the final product.

As the name implies, the spring-like mode mimics the influence of a spring running parallel to the calf, storing energy during the beginning of the step and unloading that energy as the toes push off. In powered mode, the motors tug a cable that runs through the back of the exoskeleton from the heel to the calf. With action similar to a bicycle brake cable, it pulls upward during toe-off to help extend the ankle at the end of a running step.

Eleven experienced runners tested the two assistance types while running on a treadmill. They also completed tests where they wore the hardware without any of the assistance mechanisms turned on.

Each runner had to become accustomed to the exoskeleton emulator prior to testing – and its operation was customised to accommodate their gait cycle and phases. During the actual tests, the researchers measured the runners’ energetic output through a mask that tracked how much oxygen they were breathing in and how much carbon dioxide they were breathing out. Tests for each type of assistance lasted six minutes and the researchers based their findings on the last three minutes of each exercise.

The energy savings the researchers observed indicate that a runner using the powered exoskeleton could boost their speed by as much as 10 per cent. That figure could be even higher if runners have additional time for training and optimisation. Given the considerable gains involved, the researchers think it should be possible to turn the powered skeleton into an effective untethered device.

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The breathing aid, known as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), has been used extensively in hospitals in Italy and China to help Covid-19 patients with serious lung infections to breathe more easily when oxygen alone is insufficient.

Since Wednesday 18^th March, engineers at UCL and HPP and clinicians at UCLH have been working round the clock at UCL’s engineering hub MechSpace to reverse engineer a device that can be produced rapidly by the thousands. This has now been recommended for use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

This breathing aid was produced within a rapid timeframe – it took fewer than 100 hours from the initial meeting to production of the first device. One hundred devices are to be delivered to UCLH for clinical trials, with rapid roll-out to hospitals around the country ahead of the predicted surge in Covid-19 hospital admissions.

The collaboration, supported by the National Institute for Health Research UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, demonstrates the way that universities, the NHS and industry are coming together to help the national response to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, by providing vital technologies to the NHS which can enable them to care for patients who require respiratory support.

Reports from Italy indicate that approximately 50% of patients given CPAP have avoided the need for invasive mechanical ventilation. However, such devices are in short supply in UK hospitals.

These devices will help to save lives by ensuring that ventilators, a limited resource, are used only for the most severely ill

UCLH critical care consultant Professor Mervyn Singer (UCL Medicine)

CPAP machines are routinely used by the NHS to support patients in a hospital or at home with breathing difficulties. They work by pushing an air-oxygen mix into the mouth and nose at a continuous rate, keeping airways open and increasing the amount of oxygen entering the lungs. Invasive ventilators deliver breaths directly into the lungs but require heavy sedation and connection to a tube placed into the patient’s trachea (windpipe).

Project Pitlane is a collective of UK-based Formula 1 teams and their respective technology arms coordinating a response to the UK government’s call for assistance with the manufacture of medical devices. It will pool the resources and capabilities of its member teams, focusing on the core skills of the F1 industry: rapid design, prototype manufacture, test and skilled assembly. F1’s ability to respond rapidly to engineering and technological challenges allows the group to add value to the wider engineering industry’s response.

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The company which manufactures speciality chemicals for the composites industry is also a producer of two key raw materials needed for sanitisers – isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and ethanol. The company is already running these plants flat out and have been diverting more of this product to essential medical use and will now build two new factories to make hand sanitiser from them.

INEOS intends to produce both standard and the increasingly popular “pocket bottle” hand sanitisers and is already talking to retail outlets across Europe. Supplies to NHS hospitals will be free of charge for the period of the crisis with the public being able to purchase bottles through retailers.

The company manufactures essential healthcare products from rubber gloves to PVC saline drips, syringes, ventilators, medical tubing. Its products purify public drinking water. It produces raw materials for soap, acetone for aspirin and paracetamol, and its phenol is being used in pharmaceutical analysis essential in procedures necessary to find a vaccine.

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The teams are working in collaboration with Formula 1, the UK Government and other organisations to establish the feasibility of the teams producing, or supporting the production of, medical devices to help in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

All the teams have expert design, technology and production capabilities, and specialise in rapid prototyping and high-value manufacturing, which is hoped can be applied to the critical needs set out by Government.

Working with Innovate UK, the High-Value Manufacturing Catapult team and UCL and University College London Hospitals, the teams are evaluating a number of routes in conjunction with existing manufacturers and organisations from the aerospace and automotive sectors.

It is hoped this work, which is being rapidly progressed, will produce a tangible outcome in the next few days.

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The company has reconfigured its production to begin die-cutting discs for filters to assist with the urgent production of ventilators for the NHS. At present, Bindatex is working with its customers, manufacturing the parts, but are also able to support other manufacturers by providing the filters.

The filters of a ventilator play a number of important roles. They protect the patient from any sort of airborne particles which might be in the gas supply systems or the ambient air, they protect the ventilator itself from the air being exhaled by the patient and they protect the physician and co-workers from exhaled pathogens which did not make it to the patient.

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For the manufacture of both type of components, the company used its 3D printing technology to create the emergency valves for ventilators and several Charlotte Valves which are link-components for the emergency ventilator masks.

The company said it’s patented the Charlotte Valve, to prevent any speculation on the price of the component. They clarify that the patent will remain free to use because it is in their intention that all hospitals in need could use it if necessary. It should be noted that neither the mask nor the link is certified and their use is subject to a situation of mandatory need.

Usage by the patient is subjected to the acceptance of the use of an uncertified biomedical device, by providing a signed declaration.

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The company will be using a pilot line at its Rhône Alpes Research Center (CRRA), near Lyon, which will be dedicated to the manufacture of an alcohol-based solution in order to help out healthcare professionals now under considerable strain.

The solution will be supplied to the French health authorities and will be earmarked in particular for the mass restocking of public hospitals.

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