This week’s Covid-19 Taskforce micro webinar is hosted by Jesse Halfon, Automotive Products Liability & Class Actions Attorney at Dykema, who speaks with Alex Farren, CEO of BlueMorph, a company that specializes in the design of UV light delivery systems to sanitize the interior surfaces of rooms, vehicles (planes, trains and automobiles), containers and other defined spaces.
In this interview, they discuss BlueMorph’s latest UVC technology, built with the cleaning and disinfecting of shared mobility vehicles in mind. Alex talks us through BlueMorph’s car disinfection unit specs, what makes BlueMorph’s technology special compared to other UV disinfecting services and shares his thoughts of the future of UV science in relation to mobility services and much more.
You can directly ask the taskforce anything related to Covid-19 and seek advice on managing your own operation by sending an email to taskforce@movmi.net.
Covid-19 Taskforce: Ultraviolet (UV) Cleaning Technology with Jesse Halfon and Alex Farren
In this MICRO WEBINAR:
- Alex explains how he and his team developed an algorithm that looked at the different scenarios and different operational requirements needed to determine a consistent solution, that delivers a very targeted and specified dose of UV light for optimum results, as safe as possible.
- BlueMorph’s car unit has been made with all the calculations of the furthest distances that can be found within a car cabin. Within those distances, the units minimum target UV doses give a 99.99% reduction in bacteria, viruses and anything pathogenic.
- BlueMorph are one of a few companies that have carried out third testing on human Coronavirus. They tested it on many different materials and surfaces and in all cases they got great results. For stainless steel they achieved a 99.99% reduction in only six minutes.
- UVC light’s effectiveness is dependent on achieving the minimum does of light which is based on a few factors; distance, intensity of light and time. BlueMorph has designed their unit to be situated into a vehicle based on those factors which guarantees a lot more success than handheld UV wands for example.
- The UVC lamps themselves are not made out of glass, they’re made out of quartz because glass actually blocks 100 of the light and that pretty much goes for almost any plastic as well, except for a few specialized plastics. UVC is relatively safe, staring at it for a long time is not recommended, but it will not cause damage in a short time period, especially since the plexiglass covering blocks the light.
- Before Covid-19, BlueMorph were working on units for the healthcare industry and had sold into the healthcare business, to nursing homes as well to dental offices, so it can be used in a number of applications. This particular unit, however, was designed with vehicle use in mind and was created to be very user friendly. They’ve done tests on actually public transit systems and tests in a cars to see the bacteria that was present before and present afterwards on different surfaces and they saw significant reductions in bacteria everywhere.
- The main germicidal wavelength of Far UVC lamps is 222 nanometers, compared to the the 254 of the current low pressure UVC lamps. This means that Far UVC lamps could be used in the presence of people, so it does not damage skin at all and it does not impact your eyes at all. One disadvantage is cost and power. It’s significantly more expensive. A 300 watt, low pressure lamp is roughly $100 whereas a 300 watt Far UVC lamp is close to $2,000.
If you have a direct question for the taskforce related to Covid-19 or wish to seek advice on managing your own operation, send an email with your question to taskforce@movmi.net. For more Covid-19 information and resources click here.
