Premier technical institute IIT(ISM) has developed a disinfectant station, which can be used in hospitals, police stations, malls and other public places, to disinfect visitors and employees amid concerns over sanitisation and disinfection during the Covid-19 crisis.

Inside the station, the disinfectant solution is atomised in aerosol and directed over the person passing through it.

This station comes less than five days after the institute developed a ventilator adapter to enable a single ventilator to be used by more than one person.

One prototype of the station, which uses the mist technology, has already been installed at the institute’s main gate.

Another station will be installed at the SBI branch at IIT(ISM) by the weekend, while two stations will be gifted to Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) in Dhanbad.

Mechanical engineering associate professor at IIT(ISM) A.R. Dixit said: “The station is designed in a manner to ensure maximum protection to people passing through the chamber while disinfecting him or her.”

“The total disinfection time of a person passing through the chamber is 15 seconds, while the total consumption rate of the disinfectant is 1 litre per minute,” said Dixit, adding that the chemical being used at present for disinfection is sodium hypochlorite.

“The five-member team under my mentorship, which developed the station in three days of starting the work, comprised superintendent (technical) of reverse engineering lab Ashish Kumar; assistant workshop supervisor S. Bhatia; assistant executive engineer (civil), Prateek Kumar, and assistant workshop supervisor (electrical) Arbind Singh. They are now working on three more stations, out of the which two will be gifted to PMCH and one will be installed at the SBI branch at IIT(ISM),” said Dixit.

He added: “Though we have developed the technology, the fabrication of the machine (station) has been carried out by M/s Shristy Polytech on our behalf at the reverse engineering lab of the institute.”

“We are in the process of upgrading the machine and more features will be added to the station after the availability of different parts and sensors,” said Dixit, adding that they have provided a ventilator adapter of 1:2 configuration enabling a ventilator to be used by two persons, to PMCH on April 2 and will be used after clinical trials.