Rron Cena

VentCore is an open source ventilator project designed and developed by Formon in Prishtina, Kosovo.

The purpose of this ventilator is automate the operation of BVM (bag-valve-mask) in a simple, inexpensive and controllable way, for emergency cases.

Ventcore operates in 2 modes: CPAP and Volume Control. It can be connected to any laptop in order to monitor the exact Tidal Volume and Pressure control.

Ventcore is designed with fast and affordable manufacturability in mind. It is designed as an open system that can be easily produced and replicated fast, at the same time inviting everyone to contribute in its improvement as a device. Without the open source community I am sure it would have taken 3 times longer to iterate and improve the product. So that's what fast tracked improvements and finalization.

We designed the first concept within 5 days, and released it online as an open source project. Since then, it has passed 3 major iterations, with the help of the open source community and good people's will to help and contribute to its improvement, this is the power of the open source community. So with that help we were able to make 10 prototypes within 5 days and come to the final production version.

Ventcore is enclosed with a sheet metal enclosure, the whole mechanical structure inside is a single sheet metal piece and front and back faces are from laser cut acrylic sheets. All the mechanical parts of the ventilator, belt fasteners, even the potentiometer knobs are 3D printed.

Our aim, was to use all our manufacturing and product development experience and professional competence of our 3D printer production line, and design a product that is very simple and easy to make, also to find ways so we could utilize our own 3d printer stock (Formon Core).