TOWN OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. — You may have heard that General Motors was asked to work with another firm to help produce badly needed ventilators. It turns out a GM worker from the Tonawanda plant is on that assignment right now.
The GM powertrain plant in Tonawanda produces engines for various cars. And there's quite a bit of testing that goes on there to make sure they work properly. Now some of that skill is being pressed into battle against the cornovarius pandemic.
Plant spokeswoman Cheryl Messore told 2 On Your Side that Doug Harke of East Amherst, who is an engineer there with decades of experience, is now taking that expertise to the GM plant in Kokomo, Indiana. That's where they are converting that facility, which makes automotive electrical components, to build the lifesaving ventilators for COVID-19 patients.
This is a partnership with the Ventec company, which makes ventilators. They teamed up with GM to increase and speed up production as ordered by President Donald Trump. They hope to start producing up to 10,000 ventilators a month in the next two weeks after the plant is converted.
Harke is expected to focus on modifying testing equipment for the ventilator production. He arrived in Indiana this week after consulting via Skype with other engineers.
Messore says there is a possibility that other GM workers from Tonawanda may be recruited as well to work on this ventilator project as they gear up production in Indiana.