Cirrus Aircraft has stepped up to help our frontline health care workers by making medical-quality face shields and also something called Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPR). The company has turned out more than 30,000 disposable face shields and is hoping to have 850 of the respirators done by week’s end.
To create the respirators, Cirrus has teamed up with Frost River Trading to prototype and produce the blower respirators. In a news release earlier this week, Cirrus said, “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. Our engineers 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 3M 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.”
Cirrus has joined a number of other general aviation firms in pivoting from making aircraft to manufacturing life-saving medical gear. We earlier reported that Piper Aircraft had launched an effort to produce medical masks for health care workers near its Vero Beach home.
