Know here: DRDO’s two new arms in fight against COVID-19

New Delhi: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in its continuous quest to contribute towards the fight against COVID-19, has been developing several solutions from its existing arsenal of technologies and experience. These consist of innovations and quickly configuring the products for present requirements. Today DRDO has introduced two products which can enhance the operations at public places during the pandemic.

Automatic (No-contact) Mist Based Sanitiser Dispensing Unit

Centre for Fire Explosive & Environment Safety (CFEES), Delhi along with HPO 1, using its expertise in mist technology for fire suppression, has developed automatic mist based sanitiser dispensing unit. It is a contactless sanitiser dispenser which sprays alcohol-based hand rub sanitiser solution for sanitisation of hands while entering the buildings or office complexes. It is based on water mist aerator technology, which was developed for water conservation.

The unit operates without contact and is activated through an ultrasonic sensor. A single fluid nozzle with a low flow rate is used to generate aerated mist to dispense the hand rub sanitiser. This sanitises the hands with minimum wastage. Using an atomiser, only 5-6 ml sanitiser is released for 12 seconds in one operation and it gives the full cone spray over both palms so that disinfection operation of hands is complete.

It is a very compact unit and bulk fill option makes it an economical and long-lasting product. It is easy to install the system as wall-mountable or on a platform. As an indication of operation, an LED illuminates the spray.

The unit was manufactured with the help of Riot Labz Pvt Ltd, Noida, and one unit has been installed at DRDO Bhawan. The unit can be used for sanitisation of hands at entry and exit to hospitals, malls, office buildings, residential buildings, airports, metro stations, railway stations, bus stations and critical installations. The product is also expected to be very useful for entry and exit of isolation and quarantine centres.

UV Sanitisation Box and Hand-held UV device

Defence Institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences (DIPAS) and Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences (INMAS), DRDO laboratories in Delhi have designed & developed Ultraviolet C-Light based sanitisation box and UV-C (ultraviolet light with wavelength 254 nanometres) device that is held in hand. The UV-C consists of a shorter, more energetic wavelength of light. It is particularly good at destroying genetic material in COVID-19. The radiation warps the structure RNA which prevents the viral particles from making more copies of themselves. The UV-C kills microbes quickly. Sanitisation of the items by employing UV-C light avoids the harmful effects of the chemicals used for the disinfection. This is environment friendly and is a contact-free effective sanitisation method.

The UV-C box is designed for disinfecting personal belongings like mobile phone, tablets, purse, currency and the cover of office files, etc. COVID-19 virus will be deactivated by using UVC lamps in one minute placed equi-distantly in a box with a UV dose of 100 mJ/cm2. The UV lamps used in the sanitisation box also emits 185 nm which produces ozone and is able to take care of the unexposed area on the surfaces of the objects placed in the box.

The hand-held device having eight watt UV-C lamp disinfects office and household objects like chairs, files, postal delivered items and food packets with an exposure of 45 seconds at a 100 mJ/cm2 irradiance placed at a distance of less than two inches. This measure can reduce the transmission of Coronavirus in office and public environment which is required to work in all conditions.