COVID-19: IIT Roorkee develops UV chamber to sterilise mobiles and commonly used accessories

This machine can be used for the disinfection of commonly used accessories such as electronic gadgets (mobiles, watches, wireless gadgets) and metallic and plastic accessories.
The IIT-Roorkee team with their machine.
The IIT-Roorkee team with their machine.

DEHRADUN: The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) has developed a 'first-of-its-kind' continuously operated sterilization system for everyday accessories to reduce the transmission risk of COVID-19.

Professor Ajit Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee said, "This machine would play a useful role in blocking the transmission of coronavirus through common accessories."

This machine can be used for the disinfection of commonly used accessories such as electronic gadgets (mobiles, watches, wireless gadgets) and metallic and plastic accessories (wallets, keys, spectacles, bags).

The machine consists of an ultra-violet chamber equipped with a moving system that helps in carrying the object in and out of the sterilization system. It has been designed, in line with the International Standards and Scientific Literature on the use of Ultraviolet Radiation for Sterilization, IIT Roorkee experts said. The product, by design and operation, takes care of all the health hazards associated with the use of the UV light.

The team was led by Professor Vimal Chandra Srivastava from the department of chemical engineering and included his research group students Navneet Kumar, Rohit Chauhan and Swati Verma.

The prototype was conceptualized, designed, locally fabricated in Roorkee, and tested within a period of 20 days. 

A patent is also being filed. The team will improvise and scale up the production of this system in line with the feedback from the market.

"This is a one-of-a-kind product which can disinfect common accessories and significantly reduce the transmission risk of COVID-19. The highlight of this sterilizer is that it is operated in continuous mode for non-stop screening of common-use accessories. All the UV sterilizers available in the market, till now, are table-top or batch-mode sterilizers,” said Professor Vimal Chandra Srivastava.

The prototype of the system has been handed over to the Haridwar Municipal Corporation.

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