Velentium and Oasis Testing have collaborated for several years, including their recent combined efforts in manufacturing critically needed ventilators during the pandemic. With the acquisition of Oasis, medical device designer and manufacturer Velentium expands its mechanical design-based solutions to energy and manufacturing.
Prepandemic, Velentium gained Ventec Life Systems, GM’s partner in the manufacturing of ventilators, as a client in 2015. Velentium created automated test systems for Ventec’s ventilator production line, which, at the time, had the capacity to produce a few hundred units per month.
When COVID-19 hit the globe and as the virus quickly spread and more people became critically ill and required respiratory ventilators to breathe, the demand skyrocketed to 10,000 new machines per month.
GM’s Project V, which began on 20 March 2020, aimed to rapidly scale up production of the equipment. Velentium was called upon to source, assemble, document, verify, and supply more of the automated test systems it created for Ventec 5 years earlier. According to Velentium CEO Dan Purvis, “Ventec and GM needed 141 test systems in all, delivered continuously over the next 5 weeks.” (The Medical Alley Association, June 2020).
Oasis Testing was one of the first partners Velentium approached for technical expertise and knowhow. The Magnolia, Texas-based designer of automated test systems for the energy and manufacturing industries is recognized for its high-pressure hydraulics and pneumatics systems and piping for oil and gas.
“To our knowledge, Oasis had never previously worked in the medical device field, but they know pneumatic systems and piping, and a lot of the test stands required for ventilator testing are mechanically analogous, once you layer on intelligent data acquisition and analysis on top. The biggest difference is the pressure,” wrote Jason Smith on Velenium’s website.
According to a news release announcing the acquisition, the companies will operate under the Velentium name, with Oasis Testing cofounder Demetri White serving as senior program manager, responsible for growing the testing business and serving the oil and gas industry’s need for high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) testing.
The acquisition also will expand Velentium’s capabilities and footprint in the following service areas:
- HP/HT test systems and automated monitoring for oil and gas, hydraulics, and pneumatics applications
- Medical manufacturing and testing, consumer manufacturing and testing, and smart industrial systems
- Testing client products to recognized industrial standards, including those of the American Petroleum Institute, the International Standards Organization, and ASTM International
- Rapid engineering and design
- Instrumentation, tubing bending, and installation for high- and low-pressure systems
- Maintenance and servicing for test systems and system components
- Technical training for testing services