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    • MECHANICAL >
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      • Industrial Valves
      • Industrial
    • AIR DISTRIBUTION MANIFOLDS
    • PNEUMATICS >
      • Fittings/Tube + Pipework
      • Cylinders / Actuators
      • Pneumatic Control/Solenoid Valves
      • Process Control / Solenoid Valves
      • Air Treatment
      • Machine Automation
      • Tools / Airmotors
      • Pumps -Vacuum / Diaphragm
      • Vacuum
      • Compressors
      • Services
    • HYDRAULIC
    • UTILITY SERVICES >
      • Water Metering
      • Gas Metering and Pressure Control
      • Heat
      • Kemper Hygiene Systems
    • GAS DETECTION SOLUTIONS
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      • Pressure Instruments
      • Temperature, Humidity, Dewpoint and Water Activity
      • Level
      • Flow Instruments
      • Instrument Fittings and Valves
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Differential Pressure Measurement for Isolation Rooms.

6/4/2020

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Minimizing the Spread of Airborne Infectious Diseases in Hospitals

As the COVID-19 coronavirus spreads across the world, medical staff and the public are both continuing to learn about the virus and how to minimize its effects. This typically involves washing hands frequently and using alcohol-based hand sanitizers to minimize the spread of germs to friends, family, and acquaintances. Several individuals are also participating in self-quarantine practices, to further prevent the virus from reaching more people. In the healthcare industry, doctors and nurses use equipment to protect themselves from contracting and spreading diseases. Specialized rooms (often referred to as isolation rooms) can either contain airborne infectious diseases, or offer a protective environment.

What are Isolation Rooms?

Isolation rooms are specific rooms within a hospital that are designed to control the spread of airborne infectious diseases to patients, staff, and visitors. There are two different types of isolation rooms that are used in hospitals.

The first type of isolation room is designated as an airborne infectious isolation room (AII or AIIR). These rooms are designed to contain diseases from spreading to other parts of a facility by keeping the room in a negative air pressure relative to the outside air. By keeping the airborne infectious isolation room (AII or AIIR) at a negative pressure, this ensures that only clean air enters the room. Additionally, any contaminants in the air from coughing or sneezing are filtered and sent outside through an exhaust system.

The second type of isolation room is called a protective environment room (PE or PER). In this type of room, the air inside the room is pressurized, and ultimately acts as the opposite of an airborne infectious isolation room. A protective environment room is used to shelter a high-risk immunocompromised patient from contracting a disease or virus that might be brought in by another patient or be transmitted through the air.

What goes into an Isolation Room?

Several devices are used to ensure that airborne infectious isolation rooms meet CDC design requirements as well as ASHRAE’s Standard 170, Ventilation of Health Care Facilities. The CDC design requirement for airborne infection isolation rooms (AII or AIIR) requires:
  • Use of negative pressure rooms with close monitoring of air flow direction using manometers or temporary or installed visual indicators placed in the room with the door closed
    • Negative pressure room engineering features include negative pressure
    • Pressure differential of 2.5 Pa (0.01 inches of water column)
  • Minimum of 6 ACH (Air Changes per Hour) for existing facilities, greater than or equal to 12 ACH for areas under renovation or for new construction
  • Air from negative pressure rooms and treatment rooms exhausted directly to the outside if possible
These design requirements can be met by the use of peripheral sensors measuring pressure, air flow, or humidity mounted in and around the airborne infectious isolation room. These devices provide measurements of current conditions and provide a linear signal back to a building management system (BMS). The software in the BMS maintains room design requirements by demanding additional air flow from the building’s HVAC equipment as needed.

Isolation Room Pressure Monitoring

There are multiple types of devices that can be used to monitor air pressure differential in an airborne infectious isolation room, ranging from simple to complex.

The simplest device is an air differential pressure gage, such as Dwyer’s Series 2000 Magnehelic® or Series DM-1000 DigiMag® gage. These devices provide local indication of the pressure difference between the isolation room and corridor through the use of a pressure pickup port. These gages will allow patients and medical staff to quickly and visually see whether or not the room is negatively pressurized. These devices are well suited for pop-up isolation rooms, as they do not require power to function while providing a quick visual indication of the pressurization status of the isolation room.

If you are looking for an analog signal that can be integrated into a building management system or facility management system, a better solution would be to use an air differential pressure transmitter such as Dwyer’s Series MS Magnesense® transmitters or Series DH Digihelic® controllers. When equipped with an optional display, these devices will show a local pressure reading, while also providing a linear output signal to the BMS. This ensures proper air flow to the isolation room is occurring.

The best solution for monitoring pressure in isolation rooms would be a room pressure monitor such as Dwyer’s Series RSM. This device provides a local indication of pressure levels between the isolation room and corridor, while also providing a linear output signal to the BMS. Room pressure monitors are also equipped with alarm functionality to notify patients and medical staff that pressure changes have occurred. These devices also include door status indication which helps to inform medical staff when the room falls outside of required pressure levels due to the seal between the isolation room door and corridor.

Isolation Room Air Flow Monitoring

Air flow is another critical and required component in the design and construction of isolation rooms. Each isolation room is required to have a minimum of 6 ACH (Air Changes per Hour) for existing facilities or greater than or equal to 12 ACH for areas under renovation or for new construction per CDC and ASHRAE guidelines. This means that the total volume of air in the isolation room needs to change over a minimum of 6 to 12 times per hour depending on when the hospital was constructed. 

To verify that the isolation room is in compliance with the air changes per hour requirement, contractors would install an air velocity sensor on the supply and exhaust air from the isolation room. By measuring the velocity of air entering the room as well as the velocity of air exiting the room, a calculation using the room volume leads to the verification of the air changes. For more information on how air changes are calculated reference our blog post "What is ACH and Why is it Important?"

The other common way of measuring air flow is with a temperature based sensor known as a thermal anemometer or hot wire anemometer. This technology works off of a correlation between the amount of energy being pulled from a temperature sensor in comparison to a reference temperature sensor and based on King’s law. For more information on how anemometers work reference our blog post "Understanding Air Velocity Sensors."

The Series AVLV and AVUL air velocity transmitters were designed to simplify the process of taking air velocity measurements. Unlike pressure based air velocity sensors, these devices provide a linear velocity output signal that can be paired directly with the building management system or facility management system and do not require an additional air differential pressure sensor.

​
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Optek: Fighting COVID-19 with ClO2

6/3/2020

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Protect yourself and others with Chlorine Dioxide Disinfection is key in the global fight against COVID-19. Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2) is one of the most effective disinfectants, capable of eliminating bacteria, viruses, molds, biofilms and even spores. It‘s function as biocide, algaecide, fungicide, makes it a very powerful general disinfectant while at the same time being very gentle with the items to be disinfected. ClO2 is used in various applications, such as disinfection of drinking water, cleaning of medical instruments and personal protection equipment. ClO2 measurement ranges are e.g., in mg/L or % for solutions or mg/m³ for workplace air concentrations. In all cases the ClO2 content must be controlled and accurately monitored. This is where optek‘s sensors and converters come into play, which have been used in industrial applications for over 30 years.
​
Picture
​Inline chlorine dioxide measurements
​optek’s chlorine dioxide (ClO2) analyzers measure real time ClO2 solution strength and/or ClO2 gas concentration. Operationally, the analyzer passes a light beam through the ClO2 stream to be monitored, where light absorbance is measured at two distinct wavelengths. The measuring wavelength is set to focus on the ClO2 absorbance curve, while the secondary wavelength compensates for any influence such as: • window fouling • particulate / suspended solids • immiscible fluids • gas bubbles
Picture
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​ClO2 disinfection can be used e.g., for • Masks • Gowns • Headgears • Clothes • Instruments • Containers • Wheelchairs • Complex components • Surfaces • and much more...

What makes optek‘s chlorine dioxide analyzer systems the best choice for ClO2 monitoring?

A complete optek ClO2 analyzer is comprised of a C4422 converter, an AF26-VB sensor and a titanium or TFMC (Teflon) process connection. Together, this package offers the following advantages: • Chlorine dioxide measurements without use of consumable reagents • ClO2 measurements independent of flow rate or flow velocity • Can accommodate two independent measurement points on one C4422 transmitter • According to ATEX: Can be installed in Zone 1 (EPL, „Gb“) or in Zone 2 (EPL, „Gc“). Conform to IECEx. • According to FM: Can be installed in Class 1, Division 1 or Class 1, Division 2 areas • In the case of ClO2 gas measurements, can compensate for temperature and pressure swings • Independent monitoring of the reference wavelength, giving a real-time indication of window fouling • System comes with a NIST traceable validation adapter allowing for an online check of sensor performance • Utilizes a tungsten filament lamp ensuring long lamp life and consistent emissivity


For more information on Optek Products:
​Contact Pat Walsh pw@hccl.ie or Click the image to down the Datasheet.
Optek Brochure
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​Hanley Controls Clonmel Ltd.
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