WHITEWATER (iButtonLink Press Release) – iButtonLink, located in the Whitewater Innovation Center, is joining the battle against COVID-19 with its award of a coveted NASA license to produce quick-to-market ventilators for use during the pandemic.

“We have a rare opportunity to use our custom product engineering skills to save lives,” says Rob Olson, president of iButtonLink. “This is one way we are trying to help fight this pandemic.”

iButtonLink is one of just eight U.S. manufacturers selected out of nearly 100 applicants by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to make a new ventilator tailored for COVID-19 patients. Licensed by Caltech, which operates JPL for NASA, the VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally) ventilator is designed to be built quickly at a low cost and using fewer parts than a traditional ventilator. The idea is to produce simple ventilators quickly in order to free up traditional ventilators for use on patients with the most severe COVID-19 symptoms.

While JPL normally builds spacecraft, NASA put its engineers to work to quickly build a prototype in response to the pandemic, which they achieved in just 37 days in March and April. The plans then were offered to manufacturers via a registration process to quickly release the product to market.

iButtonLink’s in-house, quick-response design and manufacturing capabilities, designed for rapid custom sensor development and production, enable quick commercialization and production of the ventilators. The company normally designs and manufactures sensor networks for the global community, specializing in sensor solutions. All iButtonLink products are designed and assembled in the Whitewater facility to ensure quality and performance to customer specifications.

Potential customers for the VITAL ventilators include the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

About iButtonLink: Founded in 2003, iButtonLink specializes in the creation of custom sensor solutions for businesses worldwide. Applications range from sensing temperature in large data centers to deploying solutions in the arctic tundra that survive the fiercest of weather.