Bosch Australia Granted $1 Million for Ventilator Testing

The Bosch logo at the company's headquarters in Gerlingen near Stuttgart, Germany, on April 18, 2013. (Thomas Kienzle/AFP via Getty Images)

Production of Australian-made medical equipment was given another boost April 21, when manufacturer Robert Bosch was awarded an AU$1 million ($632,000) contract to build testing equipment for 4,000 ventilators.

Bosch Australia Manufacturing Solutions (BAMS) was granted $1 million from a consortium led by technology commercialization company Grey Innovation. BAMS, a German company with headquarters in Clayton, Victoria, has agreed to produce testing equipment needed for invasive ventilators.

“This consortium shows the strength and skill of the Australian manufacturing sector to be versatile and to work together. We are proud to contribute to the highly advanced manufacturing capability in Victoria, and particularly with this project, to help in the fight against COVID-19,” said Bosch Australia president Gavin Smith in a statement.

The notus Emergency Invasive Ventilator Program is a $31.3 million initiative speared by Grey Innovation supported by the Victorian Government and Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC). The order of 2,000 ventilators was made before Easter by Minister for Industry, Science, and Technology Karen Andrews to ensure Australia does not have a shortfall of life-saving equipment amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus spread.

The program will see 2,000 ventilators go the federal stockpile, while the other 2,000 are earmarked for Victorian government purchase. It follows ResMed’s delivery of over 3,000 ventilators on April 20.

BAMS has been given a tight schedule to deliver the ventilator testing equipment, with the first units expected to dispatch in the first week of May. Of the 1,300 associates that work for Bosch Australia, a number of them have stepped forward to work on the project, promising to work extra shifts and weekends to make the deadlines, according to the statement.

“Victoria has the highest concentration of leading engineering and manufacturing companies in Australia, and as such, we are well placed to work together to build the notus emergency invasive ventilators as quickly as possible,” Grey Innovation Executive Chair Jefferson Harcourt said.