Local Blackburn Company, Pioneering Silicone Technology For The Fight Against Covid-19

The fight against coronavirus is still taking place around the world to combat the devastating effects of COVID-19, including one local Blackburn company, Silicone Engineering, which is using pioneering Silicone technology for a new intubation shield used by hospitals across the UK preparing for a potential second wave of the novel Coronavirus.

According to Businesswire, the global ventilators market is expected to grow from $2.4 billion in 2019 to about $12.1 billion in 2020 – an increase of 404% YoY as a result of demand for ventilators worldwide to tackle COVID-19. Many of these ventilators and intubation equipment wouldn’t function properly without vital silicone components. This includes intubation shields, which protect frontline healthcare workers while they provide intricate, and dangerous, medical care to infected patients with COVID-19.

Healthcare workers across the UK are risking their lives daily inserting and removing intubation equipment from infected patients. That’s why the Manufacturing Technology Centre engineers working in collaboration with Rolls-Royce and Dr Ian Renfrew, Consultant Interventional Radiologist at Barts alongside Dr Paolo Perella, Anaesthetic Registrar at Royal London Hospital, supported by Innovate UK, have, over a 7 day period prototyped, developed and created a shield for use with ventilators using Silicone Engineering’s patented kSil® solid silicone sheeting that can be made and dispatched quickly.

Working around the clock to provide the NHS with COVID-19 silicone components
Silicone Engineering in Blackburn have implemented new processes and systems to the production of silicone sheeting for these devices, so that they reach the healthcare frontline as soon as possible. All COVID-19 component enquiries and orders have special priority and will be given fast track delivery.

The intubation shields: kSil® solid silicone sheeting
Intubation shields work by forming a transparent physical barrier between a patient with COVID-19 and those treating them, while still enabling the healthcare workers to carry out complex medical procedures. Below is an image of one of the shields (please right-click to download if not immediately present):

Patients with severe breathing difficulties as a result of COVID-19 may need to be placed on a ventilator to help them breathe, and intubation shields allow healthcare workers to insert the tube into the patient’s mouth and down the airway with minimum exposure to the virus. This procedure is known as intubation, while removing the tube is known as extubation.

Medical staff must be able to reach inside the shield to fit and remove the ventilation tube. The points at which they can do this, known as the access ports or port holes, are made of Silicone Engineering’s kSil® solid silicone sheeting, which forms a flexible but snug-fitting protective barrier around a healthcare worker’s arms as they work.