BHAWANIPATNA: Twenty-year-old Lachhaman Dundi, son of a farmer in Nuapada district, has made an automatic money sanitising machine. The machine, as the final year student of Sambalpur University claims, can sterilise currency notes worth a crore within an hour. Amid lockdown, Dundi of Kotamal village within Khariar police limits hasn’t been able to take the machine’s prototype to laboratories or incubation centres for further testing.
But he has put the prototype to test at his tiny workshop from where he runs his Startup Odisha-registered firm, Dundi Electronics and Electrical OPC (one-person company) Private limited. At present, he has installed the machine at a petrol pump in Baldiamal. The machine, however, can’t sterilise coins. Dundi claims to have developed a special internal circuit that also acts as counterfeit detector. “If there’s any fake currency note, the machine will not operate further.
However, it can’t segregate the fake from the lot,”explained Dundi, adding that his machine can sterilise a bunch of 100 notes at a time. Inside the machine, the notes are exposed to 47 degree Celsius through electromagnetic induction. “Since, colour of currency notes start fading beyond 47 degree Celsius, we couldn’t increase the temperature further,” he added. Further, the notes are made to absorb an alcohol-based sanitiser through electrolysis.
Finally, the notes are pushed out of the machine using a motor after being dried-up by an air-compressor. Dundi had spent around `5,000 for making the prototype. Poverty posed several challenges, but he pursued education with the support of a local NGO, Lokdrusti. Earlier, he had developed gadgets like cordless mobile charger and a high voltage wearable device for women safety.