Mekins Industries Limited, a leading automobile packaging manufacturer, has developed a UVC based disinfection trolley to fight against COVID-19. This trolley can be used for rapid cleaning of hospital environment, offices, factories, malls, airports and railway coaches.
The Hyderabad-based company developed the disinfection trolley in association with International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous R&D Centre of Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and University of Hyderabad.
UV light in the range of wavelengths between 200 and 300 nm is capable of in-activating micro-organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, thus disinfecting both air and solid surfaces, the company said.
Rapid decontamination of the used patient-care beds and hospital rooms before admission of subsequent occupants is a major requirement in hospitals in view of the limited availability of beds.
Coronavirus is sensitive to UVC light, as in the case of other viruses and bacteria. The germicidal effects of UVC irradiation with a peak intensity at 254 nm results in cellular damage of the virus, thereby inhibiting cellular replication.
According to the company, chemical disinfectants are often not enough to remove the bacteria and viruses found in hospitals and other contamination prone environment. UV light provides rapid, effective inactivation of microorganisms through a physical process.
This trolley has been developed with lot support and co-ordination between Dr. G. Padmanabham, Director, ARCI, Dr. Tata Narasinga Rao, Associate Director, ARCI, Dr. R. Vijay of Centre for Nanomaterials, ARCI, Dr. Samrat of University of Hyderabad and Mayank Agarwal, CEO, Mekins Industries Limited.
"Dry disinfection and sterilization of hospital rooms, instruments and other surfaces in the high risk areas using a deep ultraviolet light is a good solution, which is implemented by the designer trolley in a compelling package that brings in ease, speed and efficiency," said Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Science and Technology.
Mayank Agarwal CEO, Mekins Industries said they were able to develop this UVC based disinfectant trolley in a very short time with the available in-house resources.
"We are also working to completely automate this trolley and the robotic version of the same will be released shortly which will be IOT enabled. The UVC disinfection trolley is very helpful to disinfect hospitals, airports, malls, railway coaches, offices & factories."
The company is also coming up with UVC based box to disinfect items like purse, wallet, mobile, helmet, keys, courier boxes etc.
Mekins has seven factories across Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Ahmedabad and its customers include all major automobile companies across the globe. It exports products to Europe, North America, ASEAN and Australia.
*Edited from an IANS report