Montreal-based companies ramping up medical supplies to fight COVID-19
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Montreal-based CAE is already a world leader in the manufacturing of aerospace simulators.
The high-tech company trains professionals in civil aviation, military defence and health care.
Now, CAE is using its expertise to build life-saving ventilators.
A team of 12 CAE engineers developed a prototype of the respiratory medical machine in response to the Code for Life challenge to develop a ventilator.
“The people literally worked seven days a week around the clock,” Marc St-Hilaire, CAE chief technical officer and vice-president of Technology and Innovation, told Global News via Skype.
He says the aerospace manufacturer plans to build 10,000 of these life-saving devices in the next three months and move them from the assembly lines to the front lines of Canadian hospitals where ventilators are in short supply.
It’s CAE’s answer to the battle against COVID-19.
“We see people dying around us. I’m going to get emotional, family, friends, colleagues. Everybody feels they need to do something,” he said.
Pointe-Claire based Medicom is also ramping up production to help protect health-care workers as they treat COVID-19 patients.
The manufacturer of surgical masks will be doubling up its output at its plant in Augusta, Ga.