Atlas Copco’s Medical Gas Solutions division assists medical industry globally during COVID-19 pandemic

In line with its core business of supplying medical equipment that delivers clean breathing air, Atlas Copco’s Medical Gas Solutions division is playing an active role in lending assistance to the medical industry that is dealing with COVID-19 in numerous countries around the world. This includes the provision of medical products such as air compressors, dryers, filters as well as pipeline equipment and vacuum. As the pandemic continues to spread across the globe, many countries are looking into extending their emergency hospital capacities to cope with the expected rise in infected patients and to avoid overstraining their medical systems. The Medical Gas Solutions division’s efforts include engaging closely with institutions in countries like the USA, Canada, the UK, Spain and Italy that are looking into emergency hospital capacity extension. The division also has the ability to play a role in assisting with coordination and installation in those countries where installers are based. Continuing its support beyond its core business, Atlas Copco’s Medical Gas Solutions division came to the assistance of doctors in The Netherlands who have been working on a system to branch out one ventilator to various patients. Although not a specialist in ventilators, these units rely on clean breathing air, an area of expertise for the Medical Gas Solutions division which has an in-depth understanding of pressure and flow. The division shared its knowledge and offered advice and an engineer from Atlas Copco in Belgium located and shared some useful equipment and schematics across the various working groups.

This pooling of knowledge and combined efforts assisted the hospital in refining its ventilator system which is undergoing extensive testing and showing good results this far. The findings have also been shared online by the hospital with the global medical community. Despite mammoth efforts seen around the globe to increase production capacity of ventilators, there continues to be a worldwide shortage. Access to additional ventilators can also be difficult for countries that do not have manufacturing companies. Here too the Medical Gas Solutions division has offered assistance in production in the form of, for example 3D printing, and is also supporting engineers in Belgium with advice, The Medical Gas Solutions division extends its sincere gratitude to colleagues in other factories such as Airtec, Industrial Air (incl. Brendola), Oil-Free Air, NASC and ASC for their continued support in the priority supply of products such as scroll elements, dryers, filters, ZT’s, GA-MED’s, etc. The division also thanks its own people based in Rock Hill, Brendola, Walker Filtration, Class 1, Wuxi and Pune for all their assistance during this difficult time for all of humanity.