Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, among Corona havoc, have developed an ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light-based portable disinfection box. This box will reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 by making things like wallet (purse), keys, glasses, bags, courier packages and parcels, plastic and cardboard free of infection. Researchers say that the most important to fight Covid-19 is to reduce the risk of its infection, as this virus can remain on the surfaces of such things for 3 days. This will reduce the risk of infection in healthy people. It can prove to be a better device to disinfect surfaces of useful things.
The team of researchers includes Dr Himanshu Pathak, Assistant Professor of School of Engineering, Dr Sunny Zafar, Assistant Professor of School of Engineering, Dr Hitesh Shrimali, Associate Professor of School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, School of Basic Sciences. Associate Professor Dr Prosenjit Mandal, Assistant Professor Dr Amit Prasad of School of Basic Sciences.
In addition, the box is structured with a UV-C OPAC cover frame. It has a cuboid container made of a wooden board (furniture grade), with a two-layer aluminium foil coating, which will prevent UV-C light from going out. In this, UV-C light is applied to the surfaces of an object using ten UV-C lamps of the rated rating. The lamp also has automatic timer control, so that there is a controlled amount of UV-C light according to the object. Dr Himanshu Pathak and Dr Sunny Zafar, Assistant Professors of the School of Engineering, IIT Mandi, recognized the ability of UV-C light to prevent infection of the novel corona-19 virus. He said that the prototype that we have developed is capable of making infection inanimate objects like courier packets, travel bags, currency, purses, wristwatches, mobile phones, laptops, books, stationery etc.
