Written by Barry Nelson of WAGO|| As doctors and medical experts continue to try to find a COVID-19 vaccine, a company is looking to help control the spread—especially in medical facilities. For the past 10 years, GreenTech Environmental has been at the forefront of producing high-quality residential air purification systems. Now, with the help of CASPR Medik, they have produced an air purification system for hospitals and medical centers that has proven effective against viruses similar to COVID-19.
CASPR is designed to be installed in the HVAC system to continuously disinfect public areas and patient areas in the healthcare environment. This technology is known as an alternative to hydrogen aerosols and ultraviolet rays, and uses oxidizing molecules to disinfect enclosed areas.
It should be noted that their system has not been tested directly against the COVID-19 chain, but CASPR Medik has tested it against similar viruses (such as SARS-CoV-2) on a hard and absorbent surface. CASPR Medik also tested the system against feline calicivirus. This is a highly contagious virus and one of the main causes of upper respiratory tract infections in cats. Feline calicivirus is a well-known alternative to norovirus and COVID-19. It is a virus that is spread through airborne particles when it touches an infected surface or through coughing or sneezing. Through the technology developed by GreenTech and the tests conducted by CASPR, both chains have been significantly reduced or eliminated.
Medical institutions are taking preventive measures everywhere to stop the spread of COVID-19. They use hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and other materials to keep the room and surfaces clean. However, as GreenTech founder and CEO Alan Johnston explained, “There are many liquid disinfectants that kill pathogens well. But within a short period of time, people re-enter the room and the area becomes contaminated again. "
GreenTech's proprietary photocatalytic-based air purification technology continuously disinfects and purifies the room as people enter and exit. "It's a slower process," Johnston said, "but it's more effective because it continues to be effective."
Johnston said that with the outbreak of COVID-19, orders from medical institutions around the world continue to flood in. GreenTech plans to produce 6,000 purifiers throughout the year, but due to the virus, the process needs to be speeded up. Another 10,000-person plan has also been implemented. However, there is only one problem: there are not enough parts to facilitate the manufacture of so many products in such a short time.
In particular, a component is the part that connects the ballast (power module) to the UV output. From the beginning, GreenTech has been using WAGO's picoMAX pluggable PCB terminal blocks (product number: 2091-1372) to ensure high-quality connections. Despite the difficulties, the problem still exists... Can WAGO mass produce such PCB connectors in such a short period of time? If so, can they get them into GreenTech as soon as possible?
GreenTech uses WAGO's picoMAX pluggable PCB terminal blocks in its design to achieve reliable connections.
Thanks to good communication, WAGO answered both questions in the affirmative, which made Johnston and GreenTech very happy. Mitch McFarland, WAGO’s regional sales manager, said that this is a team effort and realized that emphasizing the importance of the product and the required parts really helps.
"Communication is the key," McFarlane said. "We need the support of WAGO US, and we also need to cooperate with WAGO Germany to complete this work."
Thanks to people like WAGO Customer Operations Manager Scott Schauer, WAGO Germany was able to push these parts to the front end of the production line and manufacture them quickly. "The order was delivered to my desk on March 30th. Thank you everyone, we will ship the first 6,000 parts from Germany before April 8." After understanding the seriousness of the situation, FedEx said that they will speed up the delivery. Shipping from Germany to GreenTech, and within a few days they were shipped to the manufacturing plant in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Communication, teamwork and technology are the pillars that help us through these unprecedented times. Thanks to companies such as GreenTech Environmental, CASPR, and WAGO, we are one step closer to mitigating and ultimately eliminating the threat of COVID-19. Hope that through these innovations, we are on the cusp of returning to normal.
For more information, please visit www.greentechenv.com and wago.com/us/discover-pluggable-connectors. Please also watch the video below to understand the end user experience of the CASPR system.
Lisa Eitel has been working in the sports industry since 2001. Her areas of focus include motors, drives, motion control, power transmission, linear motion, and sensing and feedback technologies. She holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and is a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society; a member of the Society of Women Engineers; and a judge of FIRST Robotics Buckeye Regionals. In addition to her contribution on motioncontroltips.com, she also led the production of the Design World quarterly.
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Post time: Sep-09-2021