Engineers at Thurso-based Denchi Group (
denchigroup.com) are to supply bespoke batteries for a consignment of 20 ventilators donated by the Bank of China to help the NHS in the fight against Covid-19. Procured from China, safety restrictions relating to the air shipment of Li-Ion batteries prevented the ventilators from being imported with their original power sources included.
Denchi has solved the problem by making major modifications to one of its existing products although there were some technical challenges that had to be overcome. Firstly, there were no electrical specification data or drawings of the original battery available from the Chinese manufacturer, which meant that the replacement solution had to be reverse engineered.
Secondly, the original batteries did not comply with an industry standard form factor, thereby presenting certain difficulties — in terms of mechanically fitting all the cells and the accompanying controller electronics board within the required slot dimensions.
However, Denchi was able to carry out all the necessary design, prototyping and testing activities within a very short time frame and turned the project around in just seven days. The company is now in the process of delivering the 14.5V-rated, 5.8Ah capacity batteries to the NHS, so that the donated ventilator equipment can be up and running and savling lives straight away.
Nick Russel, Denchi Group chairman and managing director, said: “Given that the Covid-19 pandemic is having such a crippling effect on our healthcare system, this ventilator battery project was something we really wanted to be involved in. Our engineers put a huge amount of effort into it, analysing the equipment and coming up with a fully effective and operationally optimised solution.
“We already have further projects in the pipeline that focus on the medical sector. These will, once again, put Denchi’s know how in power system design to good use.”