Manufacturability about ventilator HOT 3 OPEN

Interfaces and air flow sensors are available in the automation industry.
For interfaces, a Red Lion, PanelView, or C-more all work well and are fairly user-friendly.
For air flow sensors, some trusted brands I've worked with are IFM, Sick, Allen Bradley, and sometimes Automation Direct.

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There are only 85 in-stock in that location -- is there a good place to purchase those in the 10's or 100's of thousands?

My intuition is that opamps, nichrome wire, etc are likely to be things that could be sourced immediately and globally in quantities sufficient to meet demands. Glances at digikey generally confirm that, but I have not yet done a proper analysis.

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That kind of part volume is the greatest challenge, as I've only been an end-user for specific applications, never bought more than ten of any part at a time. There are three other similar models, but the total is still only about 320 sensors.
DigiKey has 15 different flow sensor models of 2k each for 30k. They are all very expensive ranging from $145-$335 each.
Since flow is a fixed variable during assist control, it might be more realistic to eliminate a flow sensor and use a mechanical air flow control valve that has a known flow rate.
I'm an electrical engineer and haven't ever used a mechanical air flow control valve because they can be a bit more crude, but they can be researched.
I've started some research on ventilators on a Google doc I made.

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