Why disinfect elevators of all things?
That’s what many a person landing on our website may ask. The reason is quite simple: in a building, cleaners diligently sweep, mop and disinfect all the rooms, but the elevator is often left out of the picture. Or it is disinfected only very superficially. After all, who thinks about cleaning the elevator when desks and toilets also need to be cleaned?
And yet the elevator is a place that is used by a particularly large number of people. From the ordinary employee to the top boss – they all use it to reach even the 56th floor without any effort. Or the third, as the case may be. This is where they all meet. The mostly small cubicles mean that they have to stand close together, while there is hardly any air exchange and usually only poor ventilation. Viruses feel particularly comfortable here and cavort in the air in heaps. Bacteria are larger than viruses and cannot stay in the air as long. They therefore like to make themselves comfortable on surfaces in the elevator. Pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 have an easy time of it.
Anyone who now thinks that normal air purifiers are sufficient to make the air as good as new again is unfortunately wrong. Air purifiers with ventilation systems do help to improve the air in the elevator, but they do not completely remove the viruses. Instead, they increasingly displace contaminated air to surfaces in the elevator – the walls, the handrails, the elevator buttons. That’s what a COVID-19 air transmission study shows[1], and the handrails and buttons in particular are already full of viruses and bacteria even without this effect, because hundreds of people touch them during the day.
UVPANEL
Our UVPANEL solves these problems. After the elevator has been used, it uses the first opportunity for disinfection and uses UV-C light to rid the elevator of all germs. Anyone who is now concerned about the safety of passengers can rest assured: people are protected from the UV rays, because the UVPANEL stops disinfection immediately if it detects movement or changes in the room. But not only that: even when a disinfection process is completely finished, the system stops and thus does not waste unnecessary energy.
What was previously a disadvantage of the elevator – namely the small size of the cabin – now turns into an advantage: sensors can easily detect the room and enable safe UV-C disinfection. An everyday activity like riding an elevator is thus reinvented: Getting into elevators without fear of germs and not feeling the need to wash your hands after every button press – We make this possible with our UVPANEL. The system is also learning more and more and can soon be used in other areas.
[1] S. Shao, D. Zhou, R. He, J. Li, S. Zou, K. Mallery, S. Kumar, S. Yang, J. Hong: Risk Assessment of airborne transmission of COVID-19 by asymptomatic individuals under different practical settings, 2020 July, things https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342763350