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News Release from: DP Seals | Subject: Antinoise, antivibration mounts
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 22 November 2007
Machine mount keeps medical equipment
quiet
A novel medical device designed to eradicate airborne pathogens owes its quiet and vibration-free operation to a mounting developed by DP Seals.
DP Seals has used its extensive in-tool rubber-to-metal bonding expertise to develop a novel antinoise, antivibration mounting for Pathogen Solutions' Medixair product In a single-step moulding process, DP Seals encapsulates the product's casing bracket and fan mount with EPDM, creating an efficient noise and vibration absorbing rubber membrane between the two
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 9 Jul 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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"Elimination of noise and vibration was a key design consideration due to the sensitive nature of the user environments", notes Chief Engineer John Willcox.
"When the mount used in early production became unavailable we needed to source a new solution".
"Working closely with DP Seals' engineers, we now have an equally effective - and much more cost-effective - antivibration, antinoise solution".
Medixair is a floor-standing unit that removes pathogens from the surrounding air by passing it through an ultraviolet germicidal irradiation chamber; 253.7nm wavelength UV-C radiation penetrates a micro-organism's membrane and disrupts its DNA, rendering it harmless.
Air speed through the chamber demands careful control to ensure 100% pathogen removal.
A 25m3/h fan provides the air movement; mounting the fan directly onto the casing bracket would create too much noise and vibration.
Simple antivibration mounts were found to be ineffective, and so the engineers separated the casing bracket from the fan mount and called on DP Seals to bring to two back together.
DP Seals designed a tool where the bracket and mount are positioned accurately and at different levels, allowing the rubber polymer to flow evenly and bond the two parts together.
Proven effective during outbreaks of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), recent independent trials at a 900-bed North London hospital have shown Medixair to be highly successful in eradicating airborne MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) pathogens.
At no time during the three-month trial period was MRSA found to have colonised a patient in the trial room compared with 11 out of 23 occasions in the control room.
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