Cape Breton company makes parts for ventilators, other medical devices

A Sydney, N.S., company is being called on to make parts for medical equipment needed in the treatment of COVID-19.

Protocase makes custom enclosures and metal parts for 16,000 customers around the world, including scientistsand engineers.

Doug Milburn, Protocase's co-founder and vice-president, said the company churns out as many as 50 unique products every day, with only a matter of days or hours between order and delivery.

He said that makes the company well-suited to help address the shortage of much needed medical devices such as ventilators.

"Our customers in the biomedical space in particular have moved over to address these new needs, so we're making parts for them," said Milburn.

"For example, there's a Canadian project going on to fast-track production of ventilators, and we have other customers elsewhere who are doing the same kind of work."

Milburn would not name those customers.

He expects pandemic-related work to take over a significant share of the company's production in the weeks to come.

"I think it's going to be major," said Milburn. "That move is just happening ... so we're doing front-end stuff for it now."

On Tuesday,another10 cases of COVID-19 were reported in Nova Scotia, bringing the total numberto 51.

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