Ford says it's ramping up production to combat coronavirus: 'We're going like hell' on masks, ventilators

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As the private sector is getting involved in combatting the coronavirus outbreak, Ford Motor Company executive chairman Bill Ford said on Tuesday that the automobile company is working with General Electric and 3M to “gear up production” on essential medical equipment.

“We are going like hell, yes we are,” Ford told “Fox & Friends.”

Ford said that his company is collaborating with 3M in making “air-purifying respirators, face shields, and 3-D printing N95 respirator masks.”

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“We got four different work streams going and we’re going as fast as we can,” Ford said.

Meanwhile, GM, Ventec Life Systems and StopTheSpread.org, coordinated private-sector response to COVID-19, are collaborating so that Ventec can increase its production of respiratory care products as hospitals across the U.S. face a potential ventilator shortage.

3M has doubled its production of N95 respirator masks since the coronavirus outbreak to a rate of nearly 100 million a month, Street Insider reported.

Ford said that the medical equipment will be ready “soon.”

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“We’re testing face shields this week in Detroit-area hospitals to make sure they work and then we can ramp up pretty quickly,” Ford said.

Ford said that his company is trying to “dramatically increase” the production of N95 respirators.

“We’d like to do it by a factor of six to 10 times of what they’re already doing.”

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Ford went on to say, “And on the ventilator with GE, we’re helping them prototype, we’re using our engineers and manufacturing people and then as soon as we get that right, we’re going to go like crazy.”

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