Ventilator Challenge – workers in Wales

As part of the UK Ventilator Challenge Consortium, workers from Siemens and Airbus came together in March 2020 at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC Wales) in Broughton to transform the facility, usually a research and development centre, into an assembly line to produce medical ventilators on an unprecedented scale.

Staff worked around the clock to build 2 assembly lines at the site and a team of 550 Airbus skilled operators were identified to build lifesaving ventilators 24/7. Following approval by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, at the height of production, the team helped to build up to 1,500 Penlon Prima ES02 ventilators in just one week, the equivalent of 6 months ventilator production at a normal rate.

Thanks to this collaboration a total of 13,437 ventilators were delivered to the NHS, ensuring the NHS has access to the equipment needed to save lives.