TAC V+ air purifier reduces the risk of infection with the coronavirus in industry, trade and commerce to ensure a safe return to normal operation.
- Infectious aerosols are a major risk factor “especially in airplanes”, yet airlines are flying at full capacity.
- For unjustifiable reasons, the rest of the economy is put at a disadvantage despite higher safety standards.
- High-performance air purifiers with H14 high-performance filters from Trotec can be used across all industries and provide maximum protection against infection.
- The technology developed in Heinsberg is available now and eliminates the need for capacity limitations.
No restrictions for airlines: is this fair and reasonable?
While airlines can book out their aircraft down to the last seat, hotels, restaurants, theatres and even therapeutic facilities have to meet strict requirements before they can resume operations. Depending on the federal state and the industry, capacity limitations apply, which allow up to only 60 percent of tables, hotel beds or spectator seats to be occupied at a time. For many companies, these requirements are a life-threatening ride on the razor’s edge, as the cash registers are already empty anyway due to closures imposed by authorities. And yet special rules apply only to the aviation industry. Despite narrow rows of seats, only 50 cm between seats and a comparatively high risk of infection, fully occupied airplanes are promptly taking off again for Southern destinations at the beginning of the summer holidays. The airlines maintain that the ventilation technology on board would eliminate the risk of infection. And what’s more, they claim that the quality of the cabin air is even equivalent to the air in operating theatres. The fact is that Lufthansa states it uses HEPA filters of protection class 13, which are also replaced every 12-18 months. However, air purifying solutions are now also available to protect employees, customers and guests from infection with the coronavirus.
New H14 filter technology from Trotec renders capacity limits for the economy redundant
The novel TAC V+ air purifier from Trotec provides proven effective protection against corona infection for industry, trade and the catering industry. Virulent aerosol mixtures in the room air are immediately diluted by the mobile air cleaning technology, the air is cleaned with up to 20 times the air exchange rate in the special HEPA filter of protection class 14 and the HEPA high performance filter renders the separated viruses thermally inactive. This technology developed by Trotec is globally unique and, in direct comparison to the HEPA filter technologies used, offers an even higher level of protection than that in airplanes.
80 percent of all corona infections occur via aerosols
Aerosols are currently on everyone’s lips, as they are the main transmission path of the coronavirus. More than 80 percent of all corona infections occur via so-called aerosols, a mixture comprising gas (usually air) and solid or liquid constituents, which contain viruses in infected persons. These tiny floating particles are mainly released into the air when breathing and speaking. While the large droplets sink to the ground after only about 1.5 meters due to their weight (which informs the social distancing rule of 1.5 meters), aerosol particles can float in the air for several hours owing to their small size (about 0.3 – 0.4 µm). The goal, therefore, must be to filter these aerosol mixtures as quickly as possible from the room and breathing air before they are inhaled.
How aerosols spread in room air
How aerosols spread in airplanes
Contrary to what airlines claim, these aerosols can also spread and be inhaled in airplanes. Because the cabin air not only moves from top to bottom, it also spreads sideways – sometimes along with infectious particles. Scientists from Weimar University have studied the effects of passengers’ body heat. This warmth generates thermals. The warm air from passengers’ bodies meets the cold air of the air conditioning system, so that aerosol mixtures are swirled forward and backward. A case came to light as far as back as 2003 where a person infected with the SARS virus infected 20 other passengers during the flight – across 12 rows of seats – simply by ejecting aerosols when breathing and coughing. A flow calculation by Purdue University (USA) illustrates this distribution of infectious aerosols when flying.
CFD simulation (FLUENT) of the distribution of particles of a coughing passenger in the cabin of a Boeing 767 in a period of about 4 minutes (Qingyan Chen, Purdue University, School of Mechanical Engineering)
This means that the aerosols are not filtered out in the air conditioning system immediately upon release. Instead, the aerosol mixtures are distributed by the air circulation of the air conditioning system across the rows of seats – and in the worst case scenario – are inhaled.
How safe is it really to fly during corona?
Dieter Scholz, systems engineer and professor at the University of Applied Sciences (HAW) in Hamburg, rightly points out that the unequal treatment of airlines may potentially have a political motive: “What is punishable elsewhere should suddenly be allowed on a plane”. Airplanes are places where many people come together, sit extremely close to each other and for a prolonged period of time. This dangerous combination does not exist in any other form of public transport. A possible reason for this may be that on the one hand, people don’t want to support Lufthansa in making billions and on the other hand idly watch its demise. However, this policy poses a high risk for passengers and also penalises the rest of the economy, which still has to comply with requirements, regardless of the hygiene approach adopted.
Trotec’s novel TAC V+ air purifier proves that there are solutions that provide effective protection against infection with the coronavirus even “without taking off”. Simply put, the air purifier brings the outdoor air condition indoors, and complements this with highly efficient virus filtering and inactivation.
The air filtration concept behind the TAC V+ air purifier is based on two pillars:
- On the one hand, the aerosol concentration in the room air is continuously and effectively diluted with virus-filtered HEPA ultrapure air. To this end, the purifier has a high ultrapure air capacity – previously unattained with mobile devices – which enables an air exchange rate up to 20 times per hour.
- In addition, airborne viruses and bacteria are first separated in an innovative, heat-resistant HEPA particulate filter and then killed off cyclically by thermal decontamination. This special filter of protection class 14 exclusively developed by Trotec is distinguished by a separation efficiency of 99.995 percent for particle sizes from 0.1 to 0.2 µm. Thanks to these features, H14 high-performance filters are even used to produce clean air in operating theatres and in similar hygiene-sensitive areas.
What sounds very technical in theory proves to be really simple in practice. The draught-free intake of polluted room air occurs close to the floor, the ultrapure air free of viruses then being returned vertically upwards into the room. Thanks to the mobile design enabling several TAC V+ air purifiers to be used, even large areas of ultrapure air without hazardous aerosol contamination can be realised.
The TAC V+ mobile air purifier is available in several colours and equipment variants as well as in stationary Trotec stores in Heinsberg.
Visit us at our Trotec store in Heinsberg
If you would like to learn more about the novel air filtration technology of the TAC V+, then you are welcome to visit us at our Trotec store in Heinsberg. Here you can learn first-hand how the risk of corona infection can be reduced to almost zero by using the TAC V+.
Feel free to talk to us personally:
Trotec GmbH, Herr Jochem Weingartz
+49 2452 962-137, jochem.weingartz@trotec.com
Trotec STORE
