Aequs, Illinois collaborate to support India's fight against COVID-19

9/24/2020

Written by

Bill King
Bill King
Aequs, India's leading aerospace precision engineering and manufacturing company, has collaborated with Illinois researchers led by MechSE Professor Bill King to develop AQovent, a medical-grade, low-cost, and mass-produced mechanical resuscitator to support India's fight against COVID-19.

AQovent is an oxygen-driven emergency resuscitator that can provide constant-flow, pressure-cycled ventilation automatically to patients in respiratory distress.

“The launch of the AQovent and its potential for impact is inspiring," King said. "We are delighted that Aequs can leverage the Illinois RapidVent to aid in the fight against COVID-19,” said William King, leader of the Illinois RapidVent project and Professor in the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering.

This collaboration with the University of Illinois was initiated to contest one of the main challenges in the current medical system. The challenge is the extensive reliance on a small segment of suppliers for specialized, proprietary, mass-produced resuscitators. This dependence has created a wide gap in the supply-demand model of these specialty products

Aequs is manufacturing these resuscitators in India based on the license procured on the concept design from the University of Illinois, USA.

Commenting on the launch of AQovent, Aravind Melligeri, chairman & CEO, Aequs, said, "At Aequs, we stand in solidarity with the government and medical fraternity in the country's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. AQovent one of Aequs' timely innovations, is a low-cost and indigenously developed resuscitator, operates without a power source, and is hassle-free. The design of AQovent lends itself to a level of scalability, enabling us to ramp up production to meet the surge in demand".

Fulfilling its responsibility towards the community, Aequs has stepped up to leverage its ‘Aerospace’ and ‘Consumer Divisions' capabilities in its vertically integrated ecosystem at the Special Economic Zone in Belagavi, Karnataka, to manufacture AQovent A dedicated team of cross-functional engineers at Aequs have pooled in their collective expertise to manufacture AQovent.

“We are thrilled that a design created by a team of engineers at the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering will be used to help those around the world,” Grainger Engineering Dean Rashid Bashir said. “This is exactly what our engineers had in mind during our process and we are looking forward to seeing the impact it will have in India. Thanks to Aequs.”

AQovent is engineered to suit Indian conditions without compromising its functional integrity and to enable the ease of manufacturing and reduce the lead time, thereby making it conducive for mass production. AQovent operates directly of oxygen, making it ideal for deployment in non-electri?ed locations (also in an ambulance as it is portable) and in situations with limited medical facilities. These single-use resuscitators are compact and easily deployable for treating patients affected by the virus and other respiratory conditions.

Original story posted on Pharmabiz.com.


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This story was published September 24, 2020.