Afghan Girls Team Make Ventilators Out Of Car Parts Successfully
Toyota Corolla Motor and Chain from Honda Motorcycle Are Two Essential Components
Afghanistan’s girls’ robotics team has turned their combined efforts towards the increasing health crisis of coronavirus as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases inside the country has reached up to 8,145. The death toll across the country has been recorded with 187 fatalities due to which the all-girls team is to make ventilators out of car parts, helping the critically ill patients of coronavirus.
Girl’s robotics team to help critical coronavirus patients
The Afghan girls’ team had previously made headlines when they won a special prize in an intercontinental contest in the United States. Now the same robotics team of teenage girls is to make ventilators out of car parts to help the increasing number of COVID-19 critical patients. The order is being completed before the end of May, only at a fragment of the cost available in the market.
Across the whole country housing more than 38.9 million of the general population, Afghanistan has only the total amount of 400 ventilators available to combat the increasing threat of coronavirus. Even though only a few thousands of people are currently affected by the infectious pathogen, it is expected that the situation could get more severe, overwhelming the already delicate healthcare system of the country.
The group of afghan girls trying to make ventilators out of car parts to help save the lives of coronavirus patients are from Heart, the western province where is the first case of COVID-19 in Afghanistan was diagnosed. The region is with close proximity to Iran and is currently the country’s virus hotspot.
Prototype for ventilators
To make ventilators out of car parts, the teenage robotics team has built a prototype to help provide temporary comfort in the breathing issues during emergency situations that are associated with COVID-19 when standard ventilators are not available. Some of the main components used to make ventilators out of car parts include a motor from Toyota Corolla and Honda motorcycle’s chain drive.
Ventilator shortage across the world
The whole world is dealing with the shortage of standard ventilators required to assist in the breathing of critical coronavirus patients. To help save lives in urgent situations, the Afghan robotics team is to make ventilators out of car parts.
A ventilator is a complicated piece of machinery required to help a patient in the process of respiration as the person is unable to do so himself. Starting from $30,000 to $50,000 on the international market, buying multiple ventilators for poor and underdeveloped countries might not be feasible.
The standby emergency ventilator made completely out of used car parts by a group of teenage Afghan girls only costs around $600, making it a perfect piece of equipment to be used on a large scale of the population in less developed countries.
Production issues
The girls are facing certain issues in the availability of source parts to make ventilators out of car parts as the government of the country has implemented lockdown to prevent further transmission of the infection. Even though the group is racing against time, they are hopeful of completing their order of ventilator by the end of this month.
The ventilators to help the country are 70% complete. The component missing is the air sensor, which the group is trying to source rather than build the component from scratch to save time. The first phase of hospital testing has been done, moving towards the marketing phase of the project.
This is a great achievement by the Afghan girls’ team to make ventilators out of car parts, as the country is suffering from a literacy rate, which is less than 30%. This project is an opportunity to increase awareness of education along with massive inspiration to all females across the country to change the perspective of women in the field of mechanical engineering.