In recent days, the number of confirmed cases has been increasing in North America and Europe. On March 25 alone, 11,525 new cases were confirmed in the United States.A total of 74,386 cases have been confirmed in Italy.

    Epidemic situation, car company produces face mask

    In Europe and the United States in the shutdown period, the outbreak has been under control of the home front in a sense of the "war epidemic".Volkswagen, FCA, kia and other auto companies announced the production of masks and other materials in China to help their respective countries.In addition to production, there are procurement and donations.

    The Volkswagen group announced that it would buy medical supplies from China and ship them to Germany. It will also manufacture face masks in a joint venture in China to support anti-epidemic efforts in Germany.

    Subsequently, the FCA announced that Comau, its industrial equipment subsidiary, was moving ahead with the production of protective masks at its factories in China, with plans to produce more than one million per month and donate and distribute them in the United States and other needy countries and regions around the world.

    On March 25, a kia spokesman also confirmed that the company was considering manufacturing masks at its factory in China.

    Mr Musk, who had previously ignored the outbreak, recently confirmed that he had flown 1,255 ventilators back to Los Angeles via a Chinese company.

    Domestic enterprises are to lend a helping hand to the international community.

    Epidemic situation, car company produces face mask

Geely group has donated anti-epidemic materials, including masks and protective clothing, to countries including Germany, Sweden, Italy and Malaysia.In four languages, chairman li shufu called on geely's global employees to work together to overcome the difficulties.

    Chery has donated more than 700,000 medical supplies, including n95-grade masks, disposable surgical masks, medical gloves and protective clothing, to more than 20 countries, including Italy, Uruguay, venezuela, Argentina and Russia.

    Masks are easy to make and cloth is limited

    Governments are also acting.Honda, nissan, Toyota, Rolls-Royce, jaguar land rover, vauxhall and McLaren were among the first to mobilised car companies in the UK to combat the epidemic, calling on carmakers in the country to switch to medical equipment including ventilars5.

    The German government has also asked carmakers to produce medical equipment such as masks and respirators, and has received responses from Volkswagen and Daimler.In the United States, ford, gm and tesla have all obtained the manufacture "license" of the ventilator.

    This is a familiar scene as a month ago, byd, gac, saic-gm-wuling, changan automobile and other car companies have announced cross-border production of masks.

    Epidemic situation, car company produces face mask

The demand is large, the production is fast, makes the mask becomes the first choice which many automobile enterprise produces the anti-epidemic material.But the production of masks does not depend solely on the mask makers.

    The core material of surgical masks and N95 masks is fused spray cloth.One ton of melt-spraying cloth can produce about one million surgical masks.At present, byd's daily production of masks is 5 million, that is, byd a daily production of five tons of melt-spraying cloth.In the past two years, the supply of melt-spraying cloth has been basically stable at about 150 tons per day.The 150 tonnes will be used in a wide range of sectors, from car manufacturing to environmental protection, with little for medical use.

    Further upstream, the raw material of melt spraying cloth is melt spraying material and polypropylene modified product. There are only about 10 domestic modified enterprises capable of mass production of melt spraying material, and the overall production capacity is very limited.Moreover, the production line cost is high, the construction cycle is long and the investment risk is big.

    Despite the efforts of businesses and governments, the gap in medical supplies remains large.In early February, China's daily production of masks more than 10 million;On March 2nd the national development and reform commission announced that "the daily production capacity of masks has both exceeded 100 million".However, according to the analysis of huachang securities, China's second and third industry employment population of about 530 million people, assuming each person a day, if the full resumption of work, that means the daily consumption of 530 million masks.

    Is it unrealistic to switch to a ventilator?

    The switch to respirators is controversial compared with the ones already used by car companies.

    Due to the large number of patients, the current stock of overseas ventilator is seriously insufficient.Italy, for example, has ordered 4, 000 ventilators from Hamilton Medical, a major Swiss maker of Medical equipment, but the company's capacity is barely a tenth of the order.

    Niklas Kuczaty, head of medical technology at the German association of mechanical manufacturers, said: "it is not practical to produce a complex medical product like a ventilator, especially in a few weeks and months."The safety and technical requirements of the ventilator are so high that "the slightest problem can put the patient at risk of illness or even death," experts said.

    Epidemic situation, car company produces face mask

It is reported that the car companies want to produce the ventilator, must accept the relevant departments of the strict review, after the certification before production.At the same time, the ventilator not only requires high production technology, the ventilator system is complex, the assembly needs professionals, experts said the car companies want to train the production of ventilator professionals in a short time is very unlikely.

    For now, apart from buying directly from countries with capacity, such as China, as Mr Musk has done, the two more plausible paths are to work with a medical manufacturer or resort to 3D printing.

    Ford decided to work with companies like 3M and GE healthcare to design and quickly produce much-needed medical equipment.Volkswagen plans to use 3D printers to make medical ventilators.Mr Musk said on Twitter that his New York factory would reopen "as soon as possible" to make ventilators for novel coronavirus patients.

    But even using 3D printing to make accessories is not easy.First of all, the medical manufacturer must provide all the data of the parts production, is the enterprise secret.In addition, the quantity of spare parts must be supplied in time, "the possibility of problems is too great".

    In short, no matter whether the ventilator can be produced in the end, it can be seen that the automobile companies of various countries have the courage to take on responsibilities in the epidemic situation. One party has difficulties to support, from donating money and materials to support hubei province in the early stage to supporting the world based on China in the later stage.

    For example, saic-gm-wuling announced on March 16 that it will officially open the free application channel for "wuling brand masks" nationwide, with more than 6 million masks expected to be distributed.On March 15, byd and China resources vanguard, the national university of pharmacy and other enterprises agreed to jointly put 15 million affordable masks.The masks produced by gac are donated to organizations, such as public security bureau, hospitals, sanitation workers and other enterprises.