Drastic times call for drastic measures, and sometimes those measures mean stepping outside of your comfortable zone and stretching what you can do for your community. For us, that means quarantine and social distancing, but for some companies, it means boosting production on a pre-existing product or shifting production over entirely to a product they wouldn’t normally offer.
Interlink Electronics (LINK.OTC) normally deals in human-machine interface (HMI) sensors and IoT solutions, but today they announced that they have quadrupled their output of components required to make lifesaving equipment for the relief effort against COVID-19.
“The extreme threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic demands an equally extreme response from our healthcare services. As the virus spreads across the globe, it is vital for hospitals and doctors to have access to the equipment they need to save lives. The dire nature of this situation is evidenced by the conditions in the hardest-hit areas around the world, where shortages of the device have forced doctors to make life-or-death decisions about whom should receive ventilator treatment,” says Steven N. Bronson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Interlink.
Ventilators are in drastic short supply during this pandemic, and global manufacturers are working as hard as they can to make as many as possible. The company is ramping up production on their patented Ring Sensor, a touch-operated, wheel-shaped sensor used in ventilators to help COVID-19 patients with respiratory distress. It’s designed for glove-wearing operators and can withstand quick deep cleanings, which make it ideal for any hospital or other medical environment. Interlink is structured to handle a sudden increase in output courtesy of its agile manufacturing operation, a multi-disciplinary engineering squad and distribution facilities with strategic global reach.
Wearing gloves when using all of Interlink’s FSR-based HMI technologies makes these technologies more effective in curving the spread of the disease, especially among frontline healthcare workers, who already face increased exposure due to a lack of personal protective equipment.
“To minimize the human toll of COVID-19, we must do everything we can to immediately fill the critical gap between the supply of lifesaving equipment and the rapidly expanding need for it. The unique properties of our sensing devices and technology platforms—such as gloved operation, resistance to fluid exposure, and the ability to be deep cleaned quickly—make them ideal for broad-based implementation in mitigating the spread of the disease,” said Dr. Albert Lu, CTO of Interlink Electronics.
The company is also expanding during this time, despite COVID-19, by growing its global resale network with the addition of two new partners, Analog Associates and CATS.
Analog is a 25-year old sensor and thermal technology distributor, and Interlink’s new San Francisco-based reseller for Northern California. They’ll be giving the company access to the state’s tech companies and research institutions. They have a holistic approach to sales that includes customer education, getting to know the needs of their client’s business and the use of organizational psychology to work as best they can within the client’s company culture.
“We are so excited to introduce Interlink’s range of products to our exclusive clientele. Since the Bay Area is such a hotbed of technological innovation, it’s only natural for Interlink’s innovative sensing devices to have a strong presence here,” said Dr. David Colquhoun, managing general partner for Analog Associates.
CATS is a electronics distributor based just outside of Paris, and has been chosen to represent Interlink because of its reputation in the French market and excellent on-staff technical support.
—Joseph Morton