21 April 2020:The Cirrus aircraft community is at the forefront is helping the frontline workers whose lives are at stake in the fight against COVID-19. They have donated the first round of gloves, hand sanitizer and lab gear to the local hospitals in Duluth, Minnesota. Work is in progress with the supply chain team for further donations.
Cirrus Aircraft have partnered with Frost River Trading to manufacture face masks and respirators. Over the last few days they have assembled about 31,500 face shields for the local medical community. Apart from face masks, the team is also producing on the prototype for Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPR) .They are battery-powered blowers that provide positive airflow through a filter to a hood that protects healthcare workers from contaminated air. These units are in extremely high demand with traditional medical supply options limited.
At the heart of creating full PAPR units, is a project to recreate the blower units available at area hospitals, which are in short supply. Engineers at Cirrus have designed, prototyped and tested a replacement assembly using computer aided design (CAD) software as well as 3D printing. The design our team came up with costs a fraction of the typical unit supplied to hospitals. The newly prototyped design will be tested in the coming weeks. If approved, Cirrus Aircraft is set to provide nearly 200 blower assemblies.