Located between mountains, in a small corner of the province of Alicante, the municipality of Ibi managed to become, for a time, the Spanish capital of toys . From its factories and from those of the region (the Foia de Castalla), cargoes arose for decades that, every January 6, the Three Kings distributed to all the homes in the country. The crisis and the outsourcing of a large part of production (mainly to China) left the Alicante population without its main banner and economic engine.

But its entrepreneurs were able to turn an adverse situation around and redirect industrial potential towards a new emerging sector: plastic injection. A large part of the plastic containers, tuppers and utensils that we usually use in our homes come from its factories.

Until now, when a new crisis, this time sanitary, has caused the large factory (as Ibi and its region are known) to direct its efforts towards the production of protective material for sanitary ware. In one week, 17 Iberian companies coordinated by Ibiae, the local employers, have managed to manufacture 13,000 protection screens for toilets . The equipment, produced in an altruistic way by the business community, has already been delivered to the public administrations so that they can distribute them according to priorities. “We have managed to manufacture thousands of units in a week and have delivered them. We have contacted the Generalitat, the Provincial Council and the City Councils to take charge of their distribution, "explains the director of Ibiae, Héctor Torrente. Iberian businessmen, however, believe that they can do more, much more, in the crisis caused by the coronavirus throughout Spain. While the autonomous communities insist on looking for medical supplies in China, Alicante industrialists believe that they can respond to the call made by the President of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig , to provide their own medical supplies. And not only for the Valencian Community but also for the rest of Spain.

For now, the process has been opened for the Generalitat to approve the screens they have manufactured, which could make them mass-produced if they receive orders. The autonomous government, in fact, has transmitted its interest in the manufacture of these elements of sanitary protection. "What we need are orders, that the administrations get involved because we can manufacture, but we do not have distribution capacity," adds Torrente when asked about the possibility of manufacturing more personal protective equipment. The production capacity in Ibi and in the surroundings, maintain some of the businessmen consulted by this newspaper, is enormous: "If there are orders, thousands of screens could be manufactured for the toilets and the personnel most exposed to the coronavirus in a very short time." While the orders arrive, from Ibi they are already supplying the rest of the Spanish regions with the raw material to be able to manufacture the molds with which to produce more masks. Ciudad Real, Murcia, Madrid and some Andalusian provinces have already received the material, confirmed the Ibi business sources consulted.

Manufacturing may not be limited exclusively to screens to protect the faces of the toilets because they also point out that there is the possibility of making respirators , one of the most sought-after devices to treat covid-19 patients. For this, they warn, they would need specific designs, the collaboration of a technological partner that provides the electronic component and the official approval of the product. “There is potential here to be able to manufacture them, but we need administrations to help us articulate the entire process. Spain has a high production capacity that has been covered by outsourcing in recent years, but it is still active and can help us during this crisis, "says one of the entrepreneurs who have collaborated in the manufacture of the first 13,000 protection screens for the toilets.

The offer of Valencian companies to supply sanitary material , as Puig requested, is already on the table and only the response from the administrations remains.

In search of the necessary respirator

A medical technology equipment that regulates air flow and artificially simulates human respiration. That is a respirator, medical technology that has become essential for the treatment of coronavirus patients and that is in short supply. With a single company in Spain capable of producing Health- approved respirators , many are those that have started to review whether they could contribute to their manufacture. One of them is the Valencian multinational Power Electronic , owned by the Salvo family. Specialists in electronic technology of power and energy, in the regulation of pressures and flows, since last week put its R&D engineers and designers to work on a project to which Health and Industry give the go-ahead and can be manufactured with guarantees and in series. Power's proposal, which has its main production plant in Lliria (Valencia), could be ready next week.

The company is fully active because, among other reasons, it serves clients such as Hospital La Fe or large food distributors, and it has personnel and production capacity to manufacture or assemble a number of respirators that will alleviate famine.

Power, which has never worked with the sanitary industry, is a specialist in technology for pumping water and they are providers of 70% of Spanish irrigation, Global Omnium and Canal de Isabel II in Madrid , among other options. «Our technology regulates the flow of water. Now it is about regulating the air. From doing it to four bars to reducing it to four millibars ”, explained the manager of the company Lalo Salvo this week.

Power Eletronic is now keeping a cautious silence about what their respirator proposal will be like, whether they will do it alone or in alliance with other companies that can make other pieces. The plastic businessmen of Ibi and Castalla have already offered to supply the plastic parts required by the respirator , since they do not have the capacity to generate the necessary technology for pumping.

Then the tests will come -which could be done in the virtual hospital owned by the Catholic University of Valencia- and the homologation, which the Ministry of Industry has guaranteed to be accelerated in the case of sanitary material that is manufactured by sectors converted due to this coronavirus crisis.

What they are clear about is that the whole process has to be quick to be useful , since we are very close to the highest peak of the disease and respirators are the most scarce material that cannot be improvised.

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  • Spain
  • Madrid
  • Valencia
  • China
  • Ximo Puig
  • Murcia
  • Valencian Community
  • Real city
  • Alicante
  • Covid 19
  • Coronavirus

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