WATCH: UJ develops 3D ventilator prototype
An engineering team as the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has designed and developed a portable 3D ventilator.
UJ’s 3D Printing Coordinator Nkosinathi Madushele says the ventilator is proof that South Africans can create their own technology.
"You normally hear people say everything we have is imported, everything that we have is not made by South Africans.
"Now that is a challenge. We teach engineering, we have engineers here but we are still importing these things.
"So what really sparked us to do this, is to demonstrate we can provide our solutions, we can develop these things.”
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As the number of Covid-19 cases continues to increase in the country, the 3D ventilator might bring much need financial relief to the coffers of the Department of Health.
Madushele says the prototype cost the university close to R15 000 to create, but if the university had multiple 3D printers the whole exercise could have cost less.
"We have tested the machine not an actual human being, but a test specimen that resembles the lungs of a human being," says Madushele.
Madushele says the prototype is still in its early stages and more stills need to be done before it reaches commercial standards.
The UJ engineering team has also made the blueprint available to the public in order to develop the design further.