The COVID-19 pandemic has taken every individual and organisation by alarm. The norms of social behaviour have rapidly changed in the last couple of months and are now forcing industries to adopt stringent policies in order to avoid community transmission of this deadly virus. These precautions have become even more significant in garment manufacturing industry which is a labour intensive sector and can pose a huge risk of community transmission.
The evolving need for implementing these norms has paved a way for the industry to develop sterilisation solutions within India itself which help factories safeguard its workforce in every area within the factory premises. Importantly, factories are also embracing these solutions, as there is a huge support for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (Self-dependent India).
When it comes to ‘Made in India’ finishing and washing equipment for the commercial apparel and textile industry, Ramsons is probably on top of the list with its wide array of indigenously developed technologies. Today Ramsons is responding to the pandemic with its ‘Made in India’ disinfectant equipment. The company, with its strong R&D team, worked 24X7 when COVID-19 hit India hard and was one of the first to develop Made in India products that are CE certified. Today the industry and the country need such products while they resume operations after months of lockdown.
A garment factory, right from its entry to exit, contains various areas where gathering of workers is a common phenomenon and need extra precautions by disinfecting material and manpower. Ramsons has its extensive focus on the same.
Disinfection Chamber to sterilise human bodies at the entry of factory/office
Entry to factory premises is a crucial zone where hundreds of footsteps can be seen in the morning time/shift start time with too many unwanted touches. The new disinfectant chamber of Ramsons – RAM 007 – Kavaccha – is a walk-in chamber which is able to sterilise the human body from germs, bacteria and viruses. The chamber can be installed near the entry areas of factories/offices. The high pressure atomisation pump enables nano particulate spray through nozzles, and its 360 degree spray system ensures complete disinfection. Unlike other solution that uses chlorine based solutions which can be harmful to humans, Ramsons Kavaccha uses Echo Zan BK, which is United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) toxicity level 3 certified chemical and is said to be harmless which does not cause any irritation on human skin.
The chamber is enclosed with a polycarbonate sheet which keeps it safe from UV radiation and protects the inside material from being discolored because of high atmospheric temperature. An indicator lamp is equipped in the chamber to indicate the clear passage of a person through it.
UV Cabinets to disinfect the everyday items
Each and every worker in a garment factory uses everyday items such as pen, mobile, diary, etc., and these items are vulnerable to various pathogens including bacteria, germs and viruses which gradually develop on the surface of these items and might cause transmission to human body. Ramsons has rolled out STERIRAM UV Cabinet to reduce risk of virus transmission from everyday goods. It is a single door portable device equipped with ozone and UV-C lamp for effective eradiation of bacteria, germs, and viruses.
When needing to sanitise a tool or before entering a bio-secure area such as quality inspection room or material inspection zone, the responsible person in the factory can simply place his/her items into this cabinet. Then the person needs to set the time and press the start button. After exposing the items to ozone and UV-C light, the items can be removed. A 7-minute disinfection cycle is recommended for the process to be effective and safe. Moreover, the interlocking safety door system shuts off UV-C light automatically when opening the door to eliminate direct exposure from skin and eyes.
The effectiveness of UV-C disinfections depends on the time of exposure and UV-C radiance intensity. The technology has been tested by nationally recognised laboratory specialising in antimicrobial, biocide and veridical effectiveness showed that of exposure to UV-C radiation. The technology promises to eliminate almost 99.99 per cent of common viruses and bacteria.
After the UV cycle, the ozone cycle starts; ozone which is a strong oxidising agent, capable of destroying virus and bacteria colonies, penetrates all the areas of the chamber while also reaching the shaded area of the product where UV light couldn’t, for fast and effective sterilisation. For making the technology suitable for various kinds of use, the company offers the cabinet in three various sizes – UVCS for small, UVCM for medium, and UVCL for large. Each of them has volume of 140 litres, 320 litres and 535 litres, and weights 15 kg, 48 kg and 60 kg respectively.
Hot Chamber for sterilisation of safety equipment, bags, wallets and garments
In a factory, the workforce carries accessories such as bags, wallets, and in raw material storage area, the workers use safety equipment such as gloves, safety helmets as well as masks. All these materials need to be disinfected, and what’s more cost-effective than using a complete ‘Made in India’ product!
The Hot Chamber provided by Ramsons is ideal to disinfect all these materials. The technology uses the same concept as STERIRAM UV and has low capital and operating cost. It offers a hot air chamber for disinfecting the reusable masks, gloves at 70 degree for 20-25 minutes. The technology is feasible for the store staffs that are required to wear masks continuously. Since they are required to meet a number of people throughout the day, the machine installed in the stores would allow them to disinfect their masks and reuse it.
As far as sterilisation of garments is concerned, Ramsons has an offering – Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) – which is a sterilisation process that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet (ultraviolet C or UVC) light to kill or inactivate micro-organisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA, leaving them unable to harm garments. Micro-organisms, exposed to UVGI, experience an exponential decrease in population, similar to other methods of disinfection such as heating, ozonation, and exposure to ionising radiation. The environment-friendly machine comes for different capacities: 27, 45 and 63 garments.
Foot-operated hand wash system
While working within a factory in a labour intensive country, it’s sometimes not possible to avoid multiple touching on equipment such as sink, water taps, door handles, etc. Foot-operated hand wash system with sanitiser is a way to avoid these unwanted contacts, and Ramsons has developed such system locally during COVID-19 time to assist the industry. The company has two variations in this – a hand wash sink with sanitiser dispenser and a sanitiser dispenser stand.
In the first variation, a stainless steel sink is provided with electrically operated water dispenser tap and can be placed near factory’s canteen where large gatherings of workers take place on a daily basis.
On the other hand, the second variation contains no sink and is just equipped with a low-weight (4 kgs) foot-operated stand with a sanitiser bottle placement slot. This stand can be placed at various locations (entry/exit of a department) within a factory to ensure hands of workers and mid-management people are sanitised frequently.
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