Description

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, time quickly became one of the key life-saving factors. Patients depended on prompt diagnosis and often instantaneous interventions and therapy. Emergency units, ambulances and other hospital facilities required immediate disinfection to be prepared for new patients to receive the right care safely and at the right time.

The speed of the virus spread immediately moved safety and infection prevention measures to the top of the agenda. As a result, most European countries experienced spikes in demand for professional disinfection and cleaning products. Infection prevention became mandatory not only in hospitals but also in care homes, on public transport, in schools, gyms and at many other public places.

To prepare Europe for managing pandemics and virus spread, a team of partners for the ’Electrostatic disinfectant spray systems’ production line focused on technologies and product design processes for developing and scaling up non-contact disinfection spray systems based on already existing electrostatic spraying innovation from TECNOSTATIC. This unique electrostatic spraying technology reduces the disinfection time from a few hours to just a few minutes. Electrostatic disinfection is environmentally friendly and requires only 35% of chemical disinfection products in comparison to traditional spraying systems.

The group of partners including Fraunhofer IML, HSSMI, ITAINNOVA, TECNOSTATIC and STAM worked together to build a solution for a local European production that can rapidly address surges in demand at times of crisis.

The following goals were formulated at the beginning of the project:

  • Develop and scale up the production of disinfectant spray systems using the components of the regional and European supplier networks;
  • Set up supply chain network design in Europe to ramp up production with a specific focus on the evaluation of lead times required by suppliers;
  • Incorporate sourcing of alternative components and parts in Europe;
  • Further improve the design of the spray system and the battery pack by means of computational simulation.
  • Support the end user of the spraying device with a virtual how-to-guide, with considerations for health and safety in the handling of chemicals*.*
  • Enable on-demand simulation of the backpack’s spray system in the Cloud.

The following results were achieved at the end of the project:

  • Project MS4 aimed to build a simpler, more accurate and affordable model for spray system simulations
  • A three-phase approach was developed, involving air flow, water flow, and air blast phase, with a 2D axisymmetric model for the air nozzle
  • CFD model was developed with a three-phase approach procedure consisting of consecutive steps, airflow simulation, water flow simulation, and air blast simulation
  • ROM development followed, consisting of sensibility analysis, DOE design, DOE simulations calculation, and ROM model building
  • An application was developed from generated ROMs for the evaluation of input design and operational parameters that influence air-blast atomization nozzle performance
  • The high voltage power supply card prototype underwent an iterative improvement process for stability and robustness of sensorless motor control
  • PCB copper thickness increased to reduce heat losses and improve efficiency
  • The third backpack prototype was designed and built for improving system stability, safety and readiness for commercialization
  • Significant improvements were made to the pistol, spray gun housing, compressor, and battery pack to enhance the usability and safety elements of the electrostatic spray system