Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, or IIT Mandi, has developed a ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light-based portable disinfection box and a foot-operated hand sanitiser dispenser for sanitising hands without touching contaminated surfaces of the sanitiser bottle. Both are low-cost products and the last is meant to help contain the spread of coronavirus.
A team of researchers at IIT Mandi, has designed the UV-C light-based portable disinfection box at a cost of Rs 35,000 to disinfect household items like metallic, plastic and cardboard products, wallets, keys, spectacles, bags, courier packages and parcels.
The team of researchers, including Dr Himanshu Pathak and Dr Sunny Zafar, Assistant Professors, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi, identified the capability of UV-C light for disinfecting objects..
The researchers in a statement issued by IIT Mandi said: “The prototype has been tested in an in-house lab facility at IIT Mandi against the bacteria Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The prototype shows 99% efficacy to kill both bacteria within 40 seconds of UV-C light exposure.”
The statement added: “On testing the researchers found that UV-C lamps did not heat up the disinfected product.”
The statement further said: “The structure of the box is based on a UV-C opaque covered frame. It consists of a cuboid container made of a wooden board (furniture grade) with a two-layer aluminium foil coating to prevent UV-C light leakage. Ten UV-C lamps with designated ratings are used to provide UV-C light exposure to object surfaces. These lamps are connected with automatic timer control that regulates the dose of UV-C light as per requirement for the specific object.”
Fighting COVID-19
The foot-operated hand-sanitiser dispenser has been developed by another team of IIT Mandi led by Mr Navish Sharma, technical assistant, Civil Engineering, IIT Mandi, along with his team members, Mr Tilak Raj and Mr Hans Raj. The dispenser, as per the IIT Mandi statement, is a low-cost foot-operated hand sanitiser dispenser for sanitising hands without touching contaminated surfaces of the sanitiser bottle.
The statement elaborating the mechanism said: “In this dispenser, a spring reinforced foot pedal is installed which is connected to a pipe with a holder in which the sanitiser bottle will be placed. On pressing the foot pedal the sanitiser holder will lift and the bottle head will be pressed by a glass cap.”
Earlier, IIT Guwahati too, made similar low-cost inventions like the foot-operated hand sanitisation dispenser and disinfecting box to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
