Flight of the GermFalcon: how a potential Coronavirus-killing airplane sterilizer was born. Dimer UVC’s ultraviolet germ zapper took some very hands-on design work.
Dr. Arthur Kreitenberg and his son Elliot got some strange looks when they began the design work for the GermFalcon, a new machine that uses ultraviolet light to wipe out coronavirus and other germs inside an airplane. The father-son founders of Dimer UVC took tape measures with them on flights to unobtrusively record the distances that would form the key design constraints for their system.
Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising. In these days of coronavirus concerns, airline attendants work in what must seem like an aluminum-encased biohazard site.
GermFalcon uses a set of mercury lamps to bathe the airline cabin, bathrooms, and galley in ultraviolet-C light. Unlike UV-A and UV-B, that 200 to 280 nanometer wavelength doesn’t reach the surface of the Earth from the sun, because it’s strongly absorbed by nitrogen in the air. And that’s a good thing, because it’s like kryptonite to DNA. Using 100-amps from a lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack, GermFalcon’s mercury lamps’ output is so strong that the company claims the system can wipe out flu viruses from an entire narrow-body plane in about three minutes: one pass up the aisle, one pass down the aisle, and a minute for the bathrooms and galley.
Flu prevention was the original inspiration for GermFalcon. Dr. Arthur Kreitenberg, an orthopaedic surgeon with a background in mechanical engineering, was already familiar with UV-C sterilization, because of its use in operating rooms. “Our motivation was to take it outside of the hospital into other areas where people are concerned about germs,” he says. With SARS and MERS and annual influenza, it seemed clear that airplanes are a major mode of transmission. It was also clear that nobody was effectively disinfecting aircraft.
I can see this machine being easily adapted to disinfect trains.
This is a fascinating idea. But the protection for the operator looks remarkably flimsy – just a layer of PVC? (No doubt exposing my lack of understanding on this branch of science)
@IslandDweller
As long as the plastic is air impermeable, no contagion will get through it.
However I note that the second diagram in this post shows that the plastic is not cinched around the operator’s waist, nor does it appear to cover behind or over the operator, so it does not in fact provide the indicated “100% operator safety”…
Just to mention, we have posted a number of COVID potential remedies Industry posts this week (not service cancellations), as well as on March 13th.
I was thinking that the 100% operator safety referred to protection from the UV-C light – you couldn’t be pushing this device around whilst exposed to DNA-busting radiation. The hood must be capable of filtering out all the UV-C, although I do wonder if protective trousers must also be worn!