Posted on 03/18/2020 4:45:10 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Wednesday that General Motors CEO Mary Barra offered the automakers’ shuttered factories to produce ventilators to address the coronavirus crisis.
Barra reportedly made several suggestions for how GM could assist the government, including using factory space for ventilator production, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, adding that the government has yet to formally request the use of GM facilities.
The automaker “is working to help find solutions for the nation during this difficult time and has offered to help, and we are already studying how we can potentially support production of medical equipment like ventilators,” GM spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan told Reuters.
It remains unclear how long it would take for the manufacturer to develop ventilator manufacturing capabilities, but such a move has precedent both for the company and the coronavirus pandemic.
GM and other auto manufacturers revamped plants for tank production during World War II, while a number of companies have offered assistance during the pandemic in China, including Apple, Foxconn and joint venture automaker SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., which said they had developed production lines for manufacturing medical clothing and masks, according to Reuters.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
applicability of that to waiving FDA stds is not in my paygrade.
There are things to do to expedite everything...but I agree with you on typical lead times and material availability 100%.
Thanks for pointing that out. Stamping dies are sometimes made out of non-hardened materials that can be cheaply machined to make a car fender, for example. A lot of aftermarket parts and prototypes are made this way. But as you stated with the molds... there's a limit. A few dozen to maybe a hundred parts and it's time for a new tool. It's not an efficient solution, but it does get parts flowing earlier.
I saw a setup at the Performance Racing Show here in Indy where they are 3D printing the cores. Incredibly fast turnaround from CAD model to casting.
The WH press conf. today was highly encouraging. Providing liability relief to 3M so that they could sell industrial N95 masks to hospitals was utterly fantastic! Will be just as effective for care nurses and maintenance staff, and does not need to experience the bottle necks associated with clean room environments and conformance.
Keep doing smart stuff like that and we can make much progress quickly.
Additive manufacturing is awesome.
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