Ford, 3M, GE and the UAW To Build Respirators, Ventilators and Face Shields For Coronavirus Fight (techcrunch.com) 83
Ford announced today that it's partnering with 3M and GE to build respirators, ventilators and face shields for front-line healthcare workers and COVID-19 patients. TechCrunch reports: Its efforts include building Powered Air-Purifying Respirators (PAPRs) with partner 3M, including a new design that employs existing parts from both partners to deliver effectiveness and highly scalable production capacity. Ford says that it's also going to be building face shields, leaning on its 3D printing capabilities, with an anticipated production rate of more than 100,000 units per week. The company has designed a new face shield, which will be tested with the first 1,000 units this week at Detroit Mercy, Henry Ford Health Systems and Detroit Medical Center Sinai-Grace Hospitals in Michigan to evaluate their efficacy. Provided they perform as planned, Ford anticipates scaling to building 75,000 by end of week, with 100,000 able to be made in one of the company's Plymouth, Mich. production facilities each week thereafter.
The automaker is also going to be working with GE on expanding production capacity for GE Healthcare's ventilator, with a simplified design that should allow for higher-volume production. That's part of a response to a U.S. government request for more units to support healthcare needs, the company said. On top of its U.S.-focused ventilator project with GE, Ford is also working on a separate effort to spin up ventilator production targeting the U.K. based on a request for aid from that country's government, and it's also shipping back 165,000 N95 respirator masks that were sent by the company from the U.S. to China earlier this year, since the need for that equipment is now greater back in the U.S., the company said, and China's situation continues to improve. "The PAPRs that Ford is building, for instance, will use off-the-shelf components from the automaker's F-150 truck's cooled seating, as well as 3M's existing HEPA filters," the report adds. "These respirators could potentially offer significant advantages in use compared to N95s, since they are battery-powered and can filter airborne virus particles for up to eight hours on a single, swappable standard power tool battery pack worn at the waist."
The automaker is also going to be working with GE on expanding production capacity for GE Healthcare's ventilator, with a simplified design that should allow for higher-volume production. That's part of a response to a U.S. government request for more units to support healthcare needs, the company said. On top of its U.S.-focused ventilator project with GE, Ford is also working on a separate effort to spin up ventilator production targeting the U.K. based on a request for aid from that country's government, and it's also shipping back 165,000 N95 respirator masks that were sent by the company from the U.S. to China earlier this year, since the need for that equipment is now greater back in the U.S., the company said, and China's situation continues to improve. "The PAPRs that Ford is building, for instance, will use off-the-shelf components from the automaker's F-150 truck's cooled seating, as well as 3M's existing HEPA filters," the report adds. "These respirators could potentially offer significant advantages in use compared to N95s, since they are battery-powered and can filter airborne virus particles for up to eight hours on a single, swappable standard power tool battery pack worn at the waist."
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By who?
Even the most extreme Socialist recognizes that these services will be paid with taxes. And perhaps could mean a rise in taxes, especially for higher tax brackets.
I expect there are more Special Interest groups pretending that people are saying this, then people actually promising free.
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Of course it won't be free. Defense procurements never are. The first 100K will be priced to recover the R&D, so you don't want to ask the price. OTOH with a lot of common parts drawing on supplies Ford has due to slow or no vehicle production, the price might be lower than if they were invented from whole cloth. Not as low as simply producing somebody else's design, though, as with WW2 Jeeps.
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It adds up. By the time the bank bailout of $700 million got approved, it had ballooned by $80 billion for pork barrel.
That's how these asses roll.
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$700 billion
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No, we need to make sure the top 1% get even richer! Crisis is just a Chinese word for opportunity, which means profits, baby! Nobody wants to die, but "not dying" is gonna cost ya. What do you figure your life is worth? We'll take that much, less a dollar you get to keep for yourself. Don't spend it all in one place, haha!
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Why save lives when you can save cash?
Re:Yes, but will they do it for free? (Score:4, Informative)
We need to make sure communism gets installed. Free everything for everyone! Pelosi added phones and vote harvesting to the COVID-19 bills so who cares at this point? Just spend spend spend!
Don't know the details on those items, but would rather have specific line items than the $500B "slush fund" [washingtonpost.com] in the Republican bill that can be spent by the Administration on anything w/o any accountability (including Trump's companies) and those expenditures can be kept secret for 6 months:
But the negotiations have stalled in part on the issue of what Democrats are calling a “slush fund,” half a trillion dollars that, if Republicans get their way, would be under the sole discretion of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to distribute to companies as he saw fit.
Some of that money would be earmarked for specific industries, including $50 billion for airlines. But as Republicans wrote their original bill, Mnuchin would have almost unlimited power to decide which companies do and don’t get this assistance.
There were also specific provisions in the administration proposal that set off alarms for Democrats. Mnuchin would be able to keep the identity of the companies receiving assistance secret for six months, ...
On Sunday, Trump was asked again whether he’d commit to not taking public money for his properties, and he answered by going on an aggrieved rant about how not enough people had publicly thanked him for giving up his $400,000 salary. He finished by saying, “Let’s just see what happens.”
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Follow up: Looks like the Republicans and Democrats have some success negotiating [nytimes.com] the stimulus bill and there will be oversight over the bailout fund:
In an interview on CNBC, [Pelosi] said the emerging deal would include strict oversight over the bailout fund, including installing an inspector general to monitor it, as well as what Ms. Pelosi described as a congressional panel “appointed by us to provide constraint.” The measures are similar to those put in place as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the centerpiece of the Wall Street bailout enacted in 2008 to respond to the financial meltdown.
Democrats had balked at a version of the stimulus measure drafted by Republicans that they were concerned would give the Treasury secretary too much latitude in deciding which companies could receive the funds, and allow him to delay revealing the recipients until six months after the loans were disbursed. They said it would have created a secretive government slush fund controlled by the president and his top advisers, rather than a closely monitored program accountable to taxpayers.
Now that both parties' reps can hand out pork ... (Score:2)
In other words now that, not just the executive branch, but also the congresscritters of BOTH partie
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In other words now that, not just the executive branch, but also the congresscritters of BOTH parties, get to divvy up the pork and pick some winners, the bill can be passed.
Well... I think it's more like now that the Administration and Republicans can't simply give money out in total secrecy to Trump's friends and/or people and companies he likes (including his own) and/or who shower him with flattery, the bill can pass. The Dems are correct that this Administration has proven it can't be trusted.
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I'm not sure I understand the logic of your allegation that Trump would spend this money on himself.
If we assume Congress passes the bill as written by the Republicans, then your imagined series of events would look something like this:
Re: Now that both parties' reps can hand out pork (Score:2)
Since Trump would have acquired the money 'legally', taxpayers would be out $250bn.
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The goal is to get the funds flowing quickly, not have series of multi-committee debates over each and every line-item so that the epidemic passes before the bill. That said, the process for making improveme
Re:Yes, but will they do it for free? (Score:5, Informative)
You know what Pelosi wanted in the bill? For any company which gets taxpayer money, it would ban corporations from paying bonuses to their executives [politico.com] or paying any compensation to fired executives until the corporations repay their coronavirus relief loans to the federal government.
The bill would also ban corporations receiving relief loans from buying back their own stock or paying out dividends to shareholders. And it would bar such corporations from lobbying the federal government.
But Moscow Mitch said that's too tough. His bill only prohibits businesses that receive coronavirus relief funds from giving raises for two years to employees who make more than $425,000 a year. It also bans such companies from paying severance packages to employees who make more than $425,000 that are worth more than twice what the employee made last year.
So you're right. Republicans want to spend, spend, spend while Democrats want to hold corporations accountable for the taxpayer they want to receive. For the second time in a decade.
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You forgot the part where Pelosi also wanted $15/hour minimum wage, ballot harvesting, same day voter registration, and other left-wing wishes. Trump himself said that he thought it was a good idea to specify that money couldn't be used for executive bonuses and such. And, yes, I heard him say it.
Re:Yes, but will they do it for free? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm trying to see the downside of anything you're whining about.
$15/hour minimum wage shouldn't be a big deal for these companies who received the largest tax cut in this country's history and have been buying back billions of their own stock and giving out raises and bonuses to executives. This is on top of the billions in tax breaks these companies receive each year. What makes this argument so hilarious is these same companies are now begging the taxpayers for more money after they squandered it all on frivolous purchases. So much for trickle down economics, huh?
Ballot harvesting is not a big deal if oversight is maintained. The Republicans in California admit to doing it themselves but have admiration for the Democrats who did a much better job. Considering the fiasco in North Carolina and Georgia's destruction of all voting evidence despite a court order not to do so, ballot harvesting isn't a big deal.
Why not on same day voter registration? Don't you want people to vote? You have to provide proof of ID to register the first time, so what's the big deal? Oh right. Certain people don't want more people participating [youtube.com] in their government. Apparently one of the traditional American values is vote suppression.
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Why not on same day voter registration? Don't you want people to vote? You have to provide proof of ID to register the first time, so what's the big deal?
You're a bit behind the times. That's racist to require ID [yesmagazine.org], and in fact in California you can register to vote without ID, or even a social security number [ca.gov]. Requiring ID is next to Hell Itself, we're told over and over again. But ID is the absolute minimum required when exercising your 2A rights...
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Not requiring identification to register and the first time you vote is stupid. Once you've identified yourself you should not have to keep doing it over and over and over.
Further, in those places where they try to identify people over and over and over, they have tried to make it as inconvenient and difficult as possible to use identification. In many places you can get a free ID, but you can only do so at a limited number of places and only at certain times of the week or month [brennancenter.org] ( a bit dated from 2012).
B
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Not requiring identification to register and the first time you vote is stupid.
Fully agree. Yet that's where we are today. And to ask for ID during registration is anathema to the Left in the US.
Once you've identified yourself you should not have to keep doing it over and over and over.
If I don't know you, should I just take your word that you're Wayne Newton? Can I just go into a bank and claim that I'm quonset from Slashdot so give me my money in my account?
Besides, as we saw in 2016, the only documented cases of vote fraud came from Republicans.
False [heritage.org]. There are dozens from 2016 - and more from 2017, 2018, 2019, and even 2020. These aren't just charges or accusations - these are actual convictions for voter fraud. And if you look, they overwhelmingly ske
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They have admitted it? Can you share that admission? Or is it just "implied"? Why would anyone claim that demanding proof of ID before you register to vote is racist? You're in support of ID to register, why would you think someone would call your position racist?
Personally - I believe that the vote should be only for citizens - as the law requires. And you should prove that your attempt to exercise that right IS completely legal and ethical and correct. Otherwise, can I exercise my right to purchase
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None of that, or in fact the vast bulk of Pelosi's 1400+ page legislative wish-list, belongs in an emergency spending bill. All that does is waste time when time is in short supply.
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Yes, but only the most clueless of morons would think this could, or should be done for free. The act of public service is donating countless hours to engineer and re-tool for a product that's not in their wheelhouse. Doing it for free would be detrimental to the company's health, and that doesn't help anybody.
Re:Will take 3-6 months to retool (Score:4, Interesting)
Depends. They're apparently using GE's already-approved design as the basis, building something "simplified" for volume production. If their simplification doesn't change the underlying product's function, FDA approval might not even be required or could be expedited. On the 3rd hand, Ford is one of the companies that signed up with California regarding emissions, so there's no telling whether the T administration might use this as an occasion to punish them.
Re: Will take 3-6 months to retool (Score:1, Flamebait)
Have you ever worked in government? Most of it exists to exist and generate more reasons to exist. During a 6 month approval process only a few days are spent actually -doing- anything.
And yes, I have worked extensively for multiple government agencies at state and federal,level, thanks for asking.
Re: Will take 3-6 months to retool (Score:1)
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Have you ever worked in government? Most of it exists to exist and generate more reasons to exist. During a 6 month approval process only a few days are spent actually -doing- anything.
Herp derp gubbermint *drool*.
And yes, I have worked extensively for multiple government agencies at state and federal,level, thanks for asking.
No you haven't. They don't employ 14 year olds.
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You sit here and say this, when before your eyes we are watching state and federal officials get their own beaurocracies out of the way to actually get something done fast.
Maybe they should have closed liquor stores as non-essential.
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You sit here and say this, when before your eyes we are watching state and federal officials get their own beaurocracies out of the way to actually get something done fast.
Yes, and?
There are consequences to acting fast usually, and the lack of oversight etc can and does cause serious problems. In this case it's clear the problems from not acting fast will, unlike in most cases very much outweigh the negative consequences of moving fast.
So, all you have done is demonstrate that the government is capable of a
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This should not be modded down. Studies show something like 90% of testimony to congressional committees are government employees. Literally government lobbying itself on how awesome it is and why it should expand.
And specifically, not The People imploring their legislators to solve problems.
Most of it exists to exist and generate more reasons to exist.
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Most of the control boards for electric motors carry enough inboard programming space for a simple motor controller and alarm. Ford and its partners make 30,000 different p
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Tesla and SpaceX announced that they were working on their own designs almost a week ago. Heck, most of the news stories used the words "Ford, GM Join Tesla..." in their headlines.
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It's not like making a new car body. It's just a computer controlled pump with some sensors and controls. Crude doesn't necessarily affect function. You can mount it in a box you make on a sheet metal brake and screw together, as long as the parts that matter are up to snuff.
I think the ventilator availability is just the tip of the iceberg though. You need respiratory therapists to operate the thing and to evaluate the patient. Also patients that have complications can't just be taken off the machine.
Too funny (Score:3)
There are several projects around that cobble together PAPR units together out of low static pressure air pumps, generic tubing and 3d printed fittings and housings. Assuming that Ford's seat cooling pump is widely available on the parts market, I can almost guarantee that there is already a .STL out there with a hose fitting, a battery compartment, and a bayonet filter port.
In case you are wondering, guys with beards prefer running positive pressure masks. That way, we don't have to shave.
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I spray fungicides outdoors in the summer. I can promise you that, while I don't have a beard, I also STRONGLY prefer a PAPR to an APR. :)
That and my Cool Vest and a change of packs. That Tyvek is a cruel mistress.
Sam
Good news, CPAP machines also approved (Score:1)
Some good news along these lines, is that the FDA has approved CPAP machines [precisionv...ations.com] (used normally to treat sleep apnea, a breathing disorder) for use in aiding the breathing of COVID patients.
They are not as good as a full ventilator but can be used in a lot of marginal cases to aid breathing before a patient gets worse - and there are already millions of CPAP machines all over the place, so much easier to source than a ventilator.
Fact Checks (Score:2, Insightful)
This was Trump:
This was the Associated Press fact checking Trump:
This is Ford today:
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What he (and those calling for the government to force companies to produce more of these supplies) doesn't seem to get is that if you force it, the amount of masks and ventilators only increase to the max capacity of the factories already set up to produce these things and the companies you force to retool. OTOH, if you allow the market price to increase d
Re:Fact Checks (Score:5, Informative)
*sigh* looking for conspiracies/malice to prove your "side's" superiority. Why are you in the US always so quick to jump to that?
Reality is far more mundane. Probably is more to do with the specific wording of the question used (who would've thought a tech forum would think syntax matters?). Take the following paragraph from the article:
"Asked about production timelines and capacity, 3M Global Technical Director Mike Kesti said that they’re still working that out, with a focus on how Ford can supplement existing PAPR production before moving into producing their new version."
This means that Ford can both say "we are months away from making [our] respirators" and "we will [help GE] produce respirators this week" and both be correct.
Investigative journalism or made up "facts"? (Score:2)
This means that Ford can both say "we are months away from making [our] respirators" and "we will [help GE] produce respirators this week" and both be correct.
But what makes you think Ford said that, or that the AP author ever contacted Ford and/or any of the other automakers, rather than just making up that assertion out of whole cloth?
Even the article didn't claim it was based on statements by the automakers - or any other investigative foundation at all.
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Can you point to the last time Trump did something good for the country he didn't have be dragged screaming and kicking into doing?
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I guess the only possible exceptions are issues he ran on. He wouldn't have to be dragged into renegotiating trade deals or being hard on China, though I guess you could find a way to argue that he didn't
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It's difficult to imagine how the Associated Press could have gotten that so wrong unless they are deliberately printing lies.
Considering that the media was falling all over itself to prove that it was Trump that caused the idiot to take a fish tank cleaner containing chloroquine phosphate, which has giant words with "DO NOT EAT! NOT FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION!" Darwin at work, leave it to the media to be retards. At least some of them like axios fixed their story. [twitter.com]
Re:Fact Checks (Score:5, Informative)
It's difficult to imagine how the Associated Press could have gotten that so wrong unless they are deliberately printing lies.
Actually, in the current rapidly changing situation it is easy to imagine that the person the press called had no knowledge of this and the situation was being discussed at the CEO-level between companies. In this case, Trump did actually know what he was talking about but that's the problem if you lie all the time: people won't believe you even when you are telling the truth.
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Slashdot used to be a place, where engineers frequently groaned about marketing and c-level suits selling products before they existed on timelines that were impossible. In fact, this was something of a running gag.
Now it's all politics, and c-level execs and marketing drones are taken at face value, if it suits your specific political narrative. Facts be damned. Also links to sites like "redstate"? What the *?!?!
the big players still dominate (Score:4, Insightful)
Ford built ... respirators (Score:2)
Cue new jokes about: Found On Road Dead ...
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oAo
Or the respirator from Tesla that looks like this:
Quite a difference.
I'll probably wait for the Deluxe version (Score:2)
Everyone knows, you never buy a stock model from Ford.
Unused kit (Score:3)
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In the immediate term, yes. But it seems like there is a systemic deficiency in emergency supplies that should be stockpiled.
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Wait until all this is over and Congress hemorrhages cash to create stockpiles of millions of this or that. Let the games begin of lobbying, providing jobs to relatives, donations, "donations", and so on to get productz included in this list.
Too late, we're dead (Score:2)
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McGyver HEPA vacuum cleaners (Score:2)
90% of the geniuses... (Score:2)