Hand Sanitizer Gel Filling Machine, EGAT innovation to fight against COVID-19
15 April 2020During the volatile situation of COVID-19 pandemic threatening the world including Thailand, one of the effective ways to prevent the spread of the virus is good personal hygiene. As physical touching can easily lead to infection; wearing a mask, eating hot food, using serving spoons and regularly washing hands with soap or hand sanitizer gel are among those ways to avoid getting infected.
EGAT has produced hand sanitizer gel, namely “EGAT’s Friendly Sanitizer Gel” containing 70% ethyl alcohol that can help prevent and kill the virus. It aims to give out 40,000 bottles of EGAT’s Friendly Sanitizer Gel to EGAT officials and communities around its power plants to promote good personal hygiene of the public.
Not only does EGAT control from ingredient selection to each production process to meet standards, but EGAT is also aware of the need of hand sanitizer gels during the pandemic. As the production speed is as important as the process, EGAT staff from Workshop and Spare Parts Division took only three days to design and invent a hand sanitizer gel filling machine.
The staff from Workshop and Spare Parts Division joined hands to design and invent 2 hand sanitizer gel filling machines. The first machine has 1 header connected with 20 alcohol dispensers made of stainless steel. These dispensers are divided into 2 sides, each of which has 10 dispensers attached, which can contain 20 bottles (180 cc) of alcohol gel per minute. However, the first machine has a constraint that is 20 dispensers need to run all at once. In case that any dispenser is broken, the whole machine must stop running.
The second machine is developed to be more efficient to solve the constraint of the first one. It consists of 2 headers. The dispensers are made of PVC tube that can contain 80 bottles (180 cc) per minute and 120 bottles (100 cc) of alcohol gel per minute, because the machine can be controlled more efficiently. The cost of this machine is not high. It costs only 10,000 Baht because of using some existing materials in the Division, such as steel parts and stainless steel.
Innovated from the expertise of EGAT staff by using existing materials and equipment, well-contained “EGAT’s Friendly Sanitizer Gel” is ready to be given to EGAT officials, communities in its vicinity and stakeholders to promptly mitigate the shortage of hand sanitizer gel during Covid – 19 pandemic.
