Hamilton-made ventilators bound for West Africa

A Hamilton business, ES Plastics, is dispatching its first ventilator export order to West Africa. 

Ten ventilators have been purchased by an American philanthropist and are being sent to a needy West African nation. 

ES Plastics has received funding support from the Callaghan Covid-19 Innovation Acceleration Fund to assist in the development of the ventilators.

The prototype has been tested and is now in production with the factory able to build around a hundred per day. 

It is a remarkable story of innovation, invention, and ingenuity. 

Back in March, ES Plastics made national headlines when it quickly developed a ventilator for doctors to use when treating people with Covid-19 respiratory illness.   

The injection mould plastic business, which has been operating in the Waikato for 31 years, usually makes plastic agricultural componentry and packaging materials like jerry cans. 

But just two months ago, New Zealand was facing a possible sharp increase in Covid-19 cases.  

Director Jeff Sharp had a conversation with two of his neighbours who were emergency medicine doctors at Waikato Hospital and heavily involved in the pandemic response.

There was a national shortage of ventilators, so he decided to make one.  Just like that.  

Using existing production methods and componentry, he quickly turned his hand to making life-saving ventilators to be used in pandemics. 

ES Plastics director and part-owner Heather Allen says the whole process has been fascinating. 

The business already had a lot of the significant components available.  “We had the valves on tap and we had the electronics on tap.”

“Because we make a lot of valves for water it is actually the same technology as making valves for air which is what a ventilator is.”

The electronic componentry was taken from another one of its products, an automatic cup remover for use in dairy sheds. 

“It was really cool bringing all the things together, that we know how to do, to make the ventilator happen really quickly.” 

They already had a pharmaceutical-grade clean room at their Pukete factory which meant they could also meet the standards for medical-grade products. 

The initial intention was to meet any urgent need for more ventilators in New Zealand. 

But the successful ‘flattening of the curve’ here, means that most of the ventilators will now be exported. 

Staff at ES Plastics are now looking at export opportunities as countries grapple with the current Covid-19 pandemic as well as future pandemic planning.