Cepac has contributed to a national drive to supply the NHS with emergency ventilators to be used to provide critical treatment for patients with severe cases of Covid-19.
In response to the government’s call to increase ventilator stocks, a consortium of UK aerospace, automotive and medical businesses – known as Ventilator Challenge UK – completed an accelerated design and testing programme.
Medical company Penlon created the first device to receive regulatory approval, using a design adapted from the manufacturer’s existing range of medical equipment.
Cepac was called on to manufacture the multi-component packaging to transport the Penlon ESO2 Emergency Ventilator thanks to the company’s expertise in transit packaging at its Rawcliffe site.
Working in partnership with Turner Packaging (which developed the initial packaging designs), the Cepac Rawcliffe team have been busy printing, cutting and assembling thousands of units.
Experts in providing safe transit solutions for a wide range of critical goods, the Rawcliffe site was a particularly good fit for the work thanks to its experience in composite packaging. In the case of the ventilator packaging, the design called for a mix of corrugate, wood and foam.
The packaging is based on an engineered pallet with a receiving tray, surrounded by interlocking corrugate sleeves and cap. Foam is then glued on to the back, front and top fitting to keep the ventilators secure in transit.
Richard Moore, general manager at Cepac Rawcliffe, said: ‘It is great to see UK manufacturing expertise being used to support critical NHS care, with companies working together to supply ventilation equipment. Packaging plays a crucial role in this supply chain, and we’re proud to be helping the country to fight back against this dreadful disease.
‘Producing these packaging units has allowed us to apply all our considerable planning and logistical skills – we have received 600 pallets of incoming materials in a very short time period and despatched over 150 lorry loads of finished goods so far.’