
To meet increasing hospital demand for personal protective equipment during COVID-19, the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI) team is using their research expertise to pivot manufacturing efforts to help create critical PPE and supplies for Ontario’s hospitals and health-care facilities.
The research team at MMRI typically helps companies develop new tool and processes related to production challenges and stay ahead of the “disruption curve” to navigate change, when COVID-19 hit, they knew that they could have an immediate impact helping design prototypes for medical PPE and essential supplies, including ventilators, face shields, COVID-19 test kit components and plexiglass guards. Once the prototypes are approved by the hospital, the custom models are sent out for local manufacturing.
The team went from idea to production in less than three weeks and continue to expand as the demand for products grow. So far the MMRI team has worked with a number of local hospitals to create custom solutions and continue to receive new requests every couple of days for new prototype developments.
To learn more, visit McMaster University.