COVID-19: Bengaluru start-up creates respirator providing over 99 per cent protection to health workers
Deepak and Vic Parmar of 'Oxyour' have developed the prototype of a Powered Air Purifying Respirator.
Published: 22nd April 2020 01:38 PM | Last Updated: 31st July 2021 11:51 AM | A+A A-
The respirator consists of a visor that has a tube at the back which connects it to a belt.
BENGALURU: Doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff who are at high risk of contracting the COVID-19 when treating critically ill patients can don an almost foolproof safety kit at work by using a super-smart respirator, urges an IT professional, who has developed the product in his home along with a neighbour.
The sophisticated equipment provides 99.97 per cent filtration, way above any of the surgical masks presently in vogue, making it impossible for the virus to enter.
Deepak and Vic Parmar of 'Oxyour' have developed the prototype of a Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) within a month's time after reading reports about the virus causing deaths of health professionals in Italy and Spain.
Parmar, who is passionate about electronics, owns a 3D printer, which helped them bring their design to shape easily.
Deepak told The New Indian Express, "Respirators are popular in the US and the government has banned its export. It is relatively unknown here. With the guidance of our contacts abroad which includes pulmonologists, doctors and even industrial designers, we have been working through the nights to bring it to shape."
While a respirator in the US costs upto 2000 dollars, it has been developed by the duo for less than Rs 50,000, he said.
"We want someone to take it up and develop it on a mass scale so that it can reach the health service workers at the earliest. Those with expertise in mass production would do it at a much-reduced cost," the start-up founder said.
Giving technical details, he said the respirator consists of a visor that has a tube at the back which connects it to a belt.
"Attached to the belt is a bacterial and viral H13 filter. Continuous fresh air is pumped by a mini machine through the tube to the hood and this pushes away potentially germ-filled air away from the nose and mouth of the wearer," Deepak explains.
The equipment can be disinfected using UV light and used upto three times, he added.
