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coVID-19 FIGHt

Elizabeth Lewis-Gray

Mining engineers

breathe air into

COVID-19 fight

ining was deemed an essential in- bending his mind to it, it really only took MIT design to make emergency backup
Mdustry at the very start of Australia’s him about five days. He worked pretty units here locally,” Caratti said.
fight against the economic effects of the closely with our amazing team of engi- The design and fabrication team is
COVID-19 pandemic but now engineer- neering people and he also engaged comprised of personnel from Lycopo-
ing groups are taking the battle further, with a clinical anaesthetist who helped dium, ECG Engineering (which is partly
designing and building ventilators for use him understand what was required and owned by Lycopodium) and the compa-
in remote hospitals. who gave him fittings and things which ny’s long-term industry partner Alloytech.
Both Lycopodium Ltd and Gekko Sys- you then insert into the patients.” “The cost to produce the units will be
tems are throwing their design and inno- At Lycopodium, chairman Mick Caratti, borne directly by the parties involved,
vation might behind the cause. having read about the lack of ventilators and I thank everyone for their absolute
Gekko is well-known for its process in remote communities, recalled that commitment to what is a critical endeav-
flowsheet innovations and plant equip- Massachusetts University of Technology our that may well save lives in the face of
ment capabilities but after being ap- (MIT) had developed a ventilator suitable COVID-19 going forward,” Lycopodium
proached by the City of Ballarat, man- for use as emergency backup for natural managing director Peter De Leo said.
aging director Elizabeth Lewis-Gray set disasters and pandemics. Gekko’s ventilator is an original design
co-founder Sandy Gray to work on a new “I realised from an engineering point of with Gray mindful of the current supply
project. view it would be relatively easy to use the chain restrictions.
“We had been approached by “We are now confirming all the
the Committee of Ballarat who had parts,” Lewis-Gray said. “You have
spoken to the hospital and they to be able to buy components that
were concerned about their access are available, which is a problem for
to ventilators if the situation got out other ventilator producers. So, we
of hand,” Lewis-Gray told Paydirt. had to find out what was available
“Being a regional hospital, they were before Sandy could finalise the de-
particularly concerned that all venti- sign of the prototype.”
lators would go to the major city hos- The company has already re-
pitals and what would happen to the ceived Victorian State Government
regions. funding for the project.
“They asked whether it was some- “The Victorian Government was
thing we could help with. I spoke to very much on the front foot,” Lewis-
Sandy and Sandy being Sandy said: Gray said. “I’ve worked with the Gov-
‘I’m sure I can do something’ and he ernment in the past so knew some
got onto it. From the time he started people to call to find out where we
The OLGA gold onstream analyser

Page 44 MaY 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT