Blue Orange Wave: Out-of-the-box-thinking during global COVID-19 pandemic

in

Blue Orange Wave: Out-of-the-box-thinking during global COVID-19 pandemic.

June 3, 2020. The entire world seemed to have stopped turning due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. What historically should have been a great period in our field of business stopped from one day to another! The first reports arrived of massive infections, daily counts of mortal victims, intelligent lockdown on SMEs and governmental orders to work from home. The only growth reported was the capacity of ICUs and Corona divisions in the national hospitals. With this enormous wave of infections there was an enormous high demand on personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare professionals globally which colored the horizon for safe and certified deliveries to the Dutch national hospitals dark grey to totally black.

PPE Shortage

Especially this last part, the shortage of PPE and therefore the great number of infections among these first line healthcare workers, was what made Tim Lodder, founder and CEO of Blue Orange Wave, and Marc Derks, sr. project manager at Damen Shipyards Group, creative in looking for an out-of-the-box solution for this challenge to be found in the industrial and consumer markets. The start was made with what now, 10 weeks after, is the Air-Wave.org Protector™.

Together with colleagues from the maritime industry, Lodder managed to mobilize his professional networks  to deploy knowledge and expertise in workplace safety, healthcare regulatory and product development capabilities. The continious growing team of experts started brainstorming on a solution that had to be comfortable, sustainable, (fail) safe and national-of-the-shelf, since there was no time to waste!

Private-Public Collaboration

They decided to connect a PAPR (Powered Air Purifying Respirator) with P3 filter set, used in the welding and maritime industry, to a widely available snorkelmask using a 3D-printed coupling to create a positive pressure mask with filtered air. From the first prototype with a coupling created from a piece of bicycle tire it took the team of 40 devoted volunteers six days to deliver a market ready product covering all set requirements. Finally, the project united in the not-for-profit Air-Wave.org Foundation facilitated by  a total of 35 companies in maritme and healthcare, consumer products to supply chain and logistics from the national Dutch industries, tech-universities and a group of medical specialists and experts.

The Air-Wave.org Protector

The product was ready within six days, the national Dutch coordination center for supply of equipment to the Dutch national hospitals was not due to their daily challenges. The Air-Wave.org team continued in several areas with their lobby and improvements. They continued improving the market ready solution to raise the standard. Testing procedures were developed to expand with full shift comfort tests which gave a better inside to usability and more important durability. There was time to innovate and improve!

Finally afer three weeks of testing with a clear focus on safety for the healthcare professional, bystander and patient, the comfort and durability increase immensely. The team registered and patented a set of 3D-printed connector pieces which will be added to the standard snorkelmask without damaging the existing mask. The most innovative improvement is located in the Seahorse, the connection piece between the snorkelmask and tube from the PAPR. This connection piece now includes a pressure valve based on filter resistance to control the positive pressure in the mask and provides a comfortable but safe use. The Trumpet, the 3D-printed connection piece on the chin of the mask, includes an expansion filter to lower the sound caused by the outflowing air and the filter protects bystanders and patients. Fact is that all in- and outgoing airflows will be filtered based on a P2+ filter efficiency .

CE Marking and future development

Currently the Air-Wave.org Protector is used by healthcare professionals in several hospitals in the Netherlands and by individuals from Belgium and the USA. Luckily, now the crisis situation has died down, we as a society have to be very vigilent about future developments on infections globally and eventually be prepared for a possible second wave. Current days with less receiving requests from other hospitals in the Netherlands and abroad the team is still very energized to help and prepare for the future. Several track are moving forward; The Ministry of Healthcare is involved as well as the Notified Body to certify this solution for the European CE marking and make it widely available within Europe. On another track the team prepares the Air-Wave.org Protector to be available globally by connecting networks of 3D printing capacity, supply chain and logistics.

Test results, dressing and cleaning protocols, assembly details and order forms can be found on the Foundation’s website https://www.air-wave.org. The Air-Wave.org Protector is ready for global use as Tim mentioned.

We at Blue Orange Wave are very proud to demostrate that with a common goal and full dedication of a great team, you really can make a difference with little out-of-the-box thinking.

Our team will always do the utmost to deliver the best solutions possible and go beyond for safety and sustainability to enhance the quality of maritime training.

A close up of a device Description automatically generated
A picture containing table, cake, indoor, different Description automatically generated

Why virtual reality has a bright future in maritime & offshore

in

An increasing number of companies and organisations in the maritime & offshore sector embrace virtual reality as a training tool. And they do this for good reasons, as I will explain in this blog post.

Although marine & offshore are often mentioned together, they are two specific markets with their own characteristics and opportunities.

Maritime: tightening of international law

Historically, the maritime business is a rather traditional sector, characterized by small margins and a strong focus on cost savings. Incidents such as the sinking of the Titanic (1912) and the Torry Canyon (1967), and the fire on the Scandinavian Star (1990) sparked an awareness among national governments that maritime safety needed to be regulated by international law. The accident with the Costa Concordia in 2012 enhanced this realisation.

Accident with the Costa Concordia in 2012

Offshore: growing safety awareness

In its relatively short history, the offshore sector has seen several major incidents. Despite the large margins and innovative culture, safety has long been neglected in this sector. But after the disasters on the Ekofisk Bravo Platform (1977), the oil production platform Piper Alpha (1988) and Deepwater Horizon (2010) we saw the rise of an industry-wide awareness that safety is not a luxury, but a key aspect of corporate risk management. This causes a need to train people in safety protocols, procedures, communication and crisis management.

This explains why both maritime and offshore have a growing demand for efficient, cost-effective training solutions. For multiple reasons, virtual reality is a particularly attractive solution.

Benefits of virtual reality

Virtual reality makes it easy to reconstruct past incidents to create learning experience for the future. It also enables you to create realistic scenarios of safety risks that are very sector-specific. This way virtual reality enables to lay a solid foundation for safety and situational awareness on vessels and platforms.

STCW training concept

A good example of the application of virtual reality is the hybrid training solution for international shipping that XVR Simulation developed in partnership with Falck Safety Services and Saphire Complete Training Concepts.

We developed this training concept in response to the recent tightening of international law for safety training in shipping (STCW). This law offers room for the introduction of new training methods like virtual reality and web-based learning.

The training concept is built from eighteen 40 foot shipping containers that provide a realistic ship environment, including the main risk areas: engine room, laundry, galley en crew recreation area. The facility is also equipped with a comprehensive simulation centre, shaped as a ship’s bridge and engine control room.

Simulation centre

Within this facility, Falck Safety Services provides a combination of realistic training and simulation training through virtual reality. This way, trainees assist each other to achieve competence in the various disciplines covered by the training. Experienced instructors ensure that this occurs within the required conditions and control the scenario from a central observation room.

Fewer training days, same quality

A key benefit of this hybrid training solution is the time saving: a full STCW repeater course can be reduced from 7 days of traditional classroom training to 4-5 days of interactive, scenario based training. This anticipates to the strong demand in the industry to minimize training costs without compromising the quality of the product.

Several major companies, including Boskalis – the Netherlands’ largest maritime service provider – and Holland America Line (HAL) have already used this training solution. HAL is considering extending this training to all its nautical and technical officers. Another cruise operator, Carnival UK Group from Southampton (UK) has already decided to use this training solution for all its 850 nautical and technical officers.

Further development

Naturally, we have plenty of ambitions to develop this training concept further. For instance we would like to include a water mist system in the training facility, to add to the realistic experience. We also have plans to expand this training concept with a specific Crisis Management module.

The results we have achieved so far, the very positive responses from the trainees and the amount of interest in the market, strengthen my conviction that virtual reality is the future for training safety procedures, incident response and crisis management in the maritime & offshore sector.

Are you active in this sector and would you like to know more about the benefits of virtual reality for your training needs? Feel free to contact me.