Collaborators from the University of Central Florida and Oregon Health and Science University have developed a 3D printed ventilator that operates without electricity.

According to the collaborators, one ventilator can be 3D printed in just three to eight hours on site, in a hospital, for instance, and only requires the addition of low-cost springs.

As the collaborators await emergency approval of the ventilator from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted medical supply chains and resulted in the limited availability of life-saving ventilators, the team is testing out the 3D printed devices in a handful of hospitals across the U.S.

During initial tests, the ventilator was attached to an oxygen tank and pumped air uninterrupted over the course of several days and without electricity.

The team believes that the 3D printed ventilators could prove useful even after the pandemic in remote regions of the world without steady access to power.