Could this be a low cost, viable STOP GAP to help with the shortage of ventilators?

Great article Sean.

Do you reckon your clever team could design one that doesn't use the BVM ? Instead using a plastic bag, kids cheap football etc...I'm thinking for places where they cannot get hold of the BVM.

No sure if you are aware, there is also an open source ventilator project that may interest some. It appears to also use a bag design

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2020/03/18/theres-a-shortage-of-ventilators-for-coronavirus-patients-so…

Yep, we have been in touch with the OSV project and offered up our design to offer to their collection if they want it. Just waiting to hear back from them.
We are willing to open source it and even though we are a company, at times like this it is NOT all about making money but helping people where we can

With a BVM it has already been medically approved and some has regulators and other safety features in place.

So seems a low cost solution to automate.

Great stuff. Looks good.

Then again, not knowing anything about ventilator design, I spotted that both use that "bottle" or bag design. I was wondering whether that was the defacto mechanical method for pushing air etc. or are there other ways of doing it. Are those bags an off the shelf product, for example?

DUH... it pays to read everything before posting. SO from I gather the BVM element is an off-the-shelf approved product.

You will find a Bag Valve Mask (BVM) in most medical kits, ambulance, A&E crash rooms etc and very low cost of less than £10.00
I have attached the animation to the post above but here is also the animation on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5EadEeg1CY&t=3s

And also Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/1558821537763805/videos/238100310699453/

How many presses can that bag sustain before it breaks? I would look into how mechanical ventilators operate to get ideas on how to build a system from scratch. Also it's important to be aware that this industry is highly regulated because if the machine fails people die. Of course a flawed machine might be better than no machine at all, but still laws could make the implementation of non-regulated, non-proved, low-budget mechanical ventilators difficult.

I would be curious to learn whether positive air pressure is the only method that works or could negative pressure machines, such as this one work too in the covid-19 case: Biphasic Cuirass Ventilation (BCV) | BiPAP and Tracheostomy Alternative

It may only have been medically approved for resuscitation or for temporary ventilation use and not for life support ventilation use though ? So there may still be some issues there, but presumably less than when starting out from scratch.

Ironically though, in basic work first aid, you are taught to do mouth-to-mouth where there are no 'safety features'.

I saw an article recently about ventilator valves being copied and 3D printed to assist with shortages in Italy, saving lives, however it looks like the lawyers are now involved:

https://www.medicaldevice-network.com/news/3d-printed-valves-covid-19-italy/

Have you seen this one ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FJKtqy-qmM

Looks much cheaper and simpler than classic ventilator - a sort of "plastic lung" - advantages are it doesn't need humidifier , precise pressure control etc etc. Scope for damage is probably much less. No need for sterile supplies .

I reckon you could build emergency version using bottom of a wheelie bin, (or similar) , suction would be harder - vacuum cleaner would work but very noisy and no good at 24/7 running. If it comes to the crunch human powered bellows pump would do.

People have mentioned laws and patents - regulations can be changed over night - patents can be suspended for military purposes to why not in medical emergency.

MK