IT202000030932A1 - AUTOMATICALLY COMMANDED, CONTROLLED AND CERTIFIED PROCEDURE FOR THE SANITIZATION OF PREMISES - Google Patents

Description

Description of the patent for industrial invention entitled: ? COMMANDED PROCEDURE FOR SANITIZING PREMISES,

AUTOMATICALLY CHECKED AND CERTIFIED"

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[001] The present invention refers to a process for sanitizing rooms commanded and controlled in a completely automatic manner so as not to require the presence of operators inside the room to be sanitized during execution of the treatment to the advantage of safety of the operators themselves, n? least of all any activity? manual performed by the operators, thus creating the conditions for the certifiability? of the treatment of 100% of the surfaces inside the environment to be sanitized. In particular, the invention? relating to a sanitization procedure that allows you to operate in total safety and guarantees the effectiveness of the treatment thanks to an automated and standardized command and control system in accordance with standards and certifications. Also, the procedure made thanks to a special sanitizing device managed by an APP through a CLOUD software portal integrated with Blockchain.

STATE OF THE PRIOR ART

[002] In the sector of sanitizing rooms or environments, sanitizing procedures are substantially known based on a manual action of the operator who generally with the aid of mobile diffusers or nebulisers has the task of homogeneously distributing the atomized or nebulised liquid on all surfaces.

[003] Manual sanitization simply involves the manual action of an operator, equipped with suitable protections such as gowns, gloves and masks, who with various devices dispenses a sanitizing product in liquid or spray form on surfaces that are rubbed with disposable cloths and disposable, such as paper, or in fabric subsequently washed and disinfected in turn.

[004] And? evident that the effectiveness of the treatment? completely delegated to the capacity? of the operator and his attention in applying the sanitizing product on all surfaces, uniformly and with appropriate times and methods based on environmental conditions. Furthermore, the manual operations are always long and laborious, therefore costly, as well as potentially dangerous if the operator is not? correctly prepared with the necessary protections to avoid damages such as intoxication and poisoning caused by the products used. In addition, at present even the personal protections aimed at preventing the inhalation of nebulised disinfectant substances are of dubious effectiveness.

[005] In any case, manual sanitization can be not effective enough since? the treatment product is dispensed into the environment at a specific point and not directly onto the surfaces. Therefore, there is no accurate control of the result obtained. It could, in fact, happen that the product is dispensed in quantity? and for a time not sufficient to reach every corner and surface of the room to obtain a good sanitization or, on the other hand, that the product is dispensed at a high concentration or that it accumulates such that it is dangerous due to the aforementioned intoxication and poisoning problems when people reside on the premises after the treatment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[006] The technical problem underlying the present invention? therefore that of devising a system to sanitize environments in order to avoid, on the one hand, the heavy manual work of the operators and their risk of poisoning/intoxication and, on the other hand, the poor treatment or excessive treatment implemented without effective control.

[007] This problem? solved by an environment sanitization system created through a sanitization process automatically commanded and controlled by an APP that belongs to a Cloud Software which is in turn integrated with a Blockchain Platform which has the task of certifying every single phase of the treatment.

[008] A first object ? therefore a procedure for the sanitization of environments or premises automatically commanded and controlled.

[009] A second object ? an equipment for the sanitization of rooms or premises commanded and controlled automatically by remote.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0010] Further features and advantages according to the present invention will become more evident from the following description of a non-limiting example with reference to the following figures in which:

- figure 1 represents a schematic view of a sanitation system of a room integrated with equipment and related remote command and control; - figure 2 represents a schematic view of an apparatus for carrying out the process of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] With reference to figure 1, the process for sanitizing surfaces of closed rooms S in accordance with the present invention comprises the following steps:

- providing an apparatus 1 for dispensing a disinfectant fluid in a room;

- activating said apparatus to pass said disinfectant fluid from the liquid state to the gaseous state using pressure and thermal shock;

- introduce said fluid into said room, cos? prearranged through a dispensing nozzle for a predetermined time;

- turn off said equipment and leave the fluid to act for the time necessary to guarantee the bactericidal and virucidal action of the fluid,

in which the aforementioned phases are commanded and controlled as follows:

- before starting the appliance ignition phase, activate a series of safety checks, all tracked and validated by a special APP;

- switch on the equipment remotely via a command and control device D so that said fluid is heated to a temperature ranging from 180?C to 220?C under a pressure ranging from 2 to 10 bar; - enter the fluid cos? set up in the room and simultaneously activate a module A for counting the time remaining at the end of the fluid dispensing;

- automatic switch-off of the appliance after the dispensing time has elapsed and simultaneous activation of a module B for counting the remaining time for safe access to the room;

- issue a warning signal for free accessibility? of the room once the aforementioned time for safe access has expired.

[0012] In particular, all the steps of the method, except for making the apparatus 1 available, are carried out automatically since commanded and controlled by a special APP software application loaded on an electronic device D such as a smartphone, tablet, PC.

[0013] Preferably, the sanitization process provides for a manual cleaning action necessary for the removal of any organic material from the surfaces to be treated.

[0014] Subsequently, the activation phase of the series of checks requires the responsible operator to compile a check list confirming the following points:

- verify and confirm the absence of people and/or animals in the room to be sanitized; - check and confirm that any windows communicating with the outside are closed;

- check and confirm the opening of any doors of closed rooms communicating with said room;

- check and confirm that the access door to said room is closed.

[0015] Each of the above checks can be carried out by an operator who personally implements the relative controls, or by means of suitable sensors, such as presence sensors for people or animals, contact sensors for doors or windows. In any case, the aforementioned APP offers a check list which requires the operator to confirm that they have carried out each check or automatically receive green light signals from the aforementioned sensors.

[0016] Only after the checks have been successful, will it be? Is it possible to activate equipment 1 by selecting the appropriate START command which will appear? on the command and control device D.

[0017] Preferably, with the START command, the device sends a WIRELESS signal to a CLOUD C software platform for the relative switch-on command of the device 1.

[0018] The CLOUD in turn will send? a power-on signal to the equipment. In fact, in this particular case, the CLOUD includes a unit? of memory M in which a series of data relating to various types of treatment are saved, preferably saved in folders (M1, M2, ?). Each type of treatment includes a series of pre-established parameters depending on the configuration of the room, i.e. of the size, presence of furniture and any other type of surface such as ceramic, wood, plastic, fabric, non-woven fabric, glass and others. In practice, the CLOUD includes a whole series of data neatly cataloged for each type of premises in which each sanitization equipment? installed. The data loaded into the memory are the result of a preliminary study carried out by accredited laboratories which have certified the effectiveness of the treatment by defining the quantity? necessary active ingredient with which to saturate the volume of the environment to be sanitized So, for each piece of equipment in each room there will be a folder in the CLOUD containing a series of functional parameters to operate the machine for specific and selective treatments that have been tested in advance in order to be sure that the treatment in those local conditions is actually effective. AND? therefore, it is clear that the treatments can not only be perfectly traced but can even be certified with absolute certainty, as explained below.

[0019] In general, ? it has been found that to obtain effective sanitization the sanitizing fluid must be heated to the aforementioned high temperature in a boiler where it is introduced at the aforementioned high pressure. Once these heating and pressure conditions have been reached, the fluid can be dispensed into the room in a fast and homogeneous way thanks to the very high kinetic energy due to its passage from the liquid state to the gaseous state as it is found in the form of very small droplets which form a kind of dry fog. Therefore, the treatment can take place without leaving residues or humidity? with a distribution on the totality? of the contact surfaces, but also in corners or spaces that are difficult to reach with known treatments.

[0020] With the phase of introduction of the treatment fluid in gaseous form, the count of the residual time of the treatment is based, as mentioned, on pre-established values. In general, ? been seen that the time of diffusion pu? vary from 0.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds per square metre, so module A for counting the remaining dispensing time ? mainly calibrated on the basis of this value.

[0021] Once the dispensing phase has ended, the appliance is switched off and module B is activated for counting the time remaining for accessing the room in safety. In other words, starts a count for the contact time of the fluid transformed into gaseous substance so that? can carry out its bactericidal and virucidal action. This weather can vary from 15 minutes to 120 minutes depending on the type of space to be sanitized, its size, the height of the ceilings, the presence of additional surfaces and any internal ventilation systems.

[0022] When the residual treatment time expires, the equipment sends an end of treatment signal directly to the device and/or to the CLOUD so that an operator is able to understand when? possible to access the premises in complete safety.

[0023] And? it should be noted that all the aforementioned operating phases of the process according to the present invention are identified and traced by the CLOUD software which in turn ? integrated with a Blockchain which certifies and validates through the ?time stamps? the actual occurrence of the operations tracked by the CLOUD software. Therefore, at the end of the sanitization process, a detailed certificate is issued and made available to anyone, for example through a QR code imprinted on the sanitization equipment which can be framed by a device such as a conventional smartphone.

[0024] In particular, sanitation ? also guaranteed by the use of a disinfectant fluid capable of reducing the bacterial load by at least 99.53%, as demonstrated by ISO12075 certified laboratory tests (ACCREDIA - Italian Accreditation Body, Lab. N? 1222) on surfaces such as ceramics, plastic , cotton, carpet.

[0025] This fluid, preferably, is an aqueous mixture of hydrogen peroxide with concentrations ranging from 6% to 25%.

[0026] In accordance with a further object of the invention, the sanitization process described above can be made with an apparatus 1 comprising a container 2 for a disinfectant fluid connected to a high pressure pump 3, a unit? vaporization unit 4 of said fluid connected to said pump, a nozzle 5 for dispensing the vaporized fluid, a data communication module 6, a unit? of memory 7 and a processor 8.

[0027] In particular, the container 2 for the disinfectant fluid ? a sterile container, under vacuum, equipped with a spout with a drip-saving valve (not shown) adapted to be connected to the inlet of said high-pressure pump 3 (connections indicated with arrows). The valve ? of the anti-fraud type and what? prevents tampering or introduction of other liquids than those defined and certified by the manufacturer.

[0028] Advantageously, the container ? a bag equipped with an RFID TAG with a specific encrypted code guaranteed by Blockchain. In this way the system guarantees l?authenticity? of the sanitizing liquid used for the vaporization and sanitization of the environments.

[0029] The high pressure pump 3 works preferably at a pressure varying from 2 to 10 bar with a flow rate which can vary from 1.5ml second to 10ml second.

[0030] The unit? of vaporization 4 ? a high-efficiency boiler capable of heating the fluid introduced at high pressure by the pump 3 to temperatures around 180-220°C, as previously described.

[0031] The spray nozzle 5 ? a conventional nozzle capable of delivering the heated fluid in the form of a gas.

[0032] The data communication module 6 comprises an integrated 4G/LTE modem, for example LTE, UMTS (DC-HSPA+, HSPA+, HSPA, WCDMA), GMS/GPRS/EDGE, a Wi-Fi, an RFID reader and NFC for reading and writing the RFID TAG of the aforementioned disinfectant fluid bag, a Bluetooth 5.0 network, a Buzzer for Audio Feedback and an RGB LED for visual communication of the status of the equipment.

[0033] Processor 8 ? a conventional command and control chip component of equipment devices. It ? connected to the pump 3 to activate it, cos? how to the valve of the fluid delivery nozzle 5 to open it once the fluid ? in the pre-established conditions to be disbursed and to the unit? communication interface 6 and to memory 7.

[0034] From what has been described up to now, ? it is clear that the drawbacks associated with the sanitizing processes of the prior art have been overcome and at the same time important advantages have been achieved.

[0035] In fact, the procedure is totally automated since it does not require the direct intervention of any operator. Therefore, long manual sanitization times are avoided as well as high costs for specialized operations.

[0036] The risk of intoxication or poisoning is avoided if the operators are not careful in the correct use of the safety devices and in calculating the correct time in which ? It is possible to safely access a freshly sanitized place.

[0037] Is the impossibility also avoided? to guarantee the certification of correct sanitization on all surfaces.

[0038] The process of the invention, on the other hand, makes it possible to automatically generate a highly efficient dry fog, without leaving damp traces and with a capacity? almost total to reach each space to be disinfected.

[0039] In addition, the total and certified control through the integrated command system by a remote CLOUD with Blockchain leaves no room for human error or manipulation of any kind.

[0040] Numerous variants and modifications of the method and of the apparatus according to the present invention can be carried out by the person skilled in the sector without departing from the scope of protection of the attached claims.

Claims (10)

Claims of the patent for industrial invention entitled: "PROCEDURE FOR THE SANITIZATION OF PREMISES AUTOMATICALLY CONTROLLED, CONTROLLED AND CERTIFIED" CLAIMS 1. Surface sanitization process of closed rooms (S) including the following phases: - making available an apparatus (1) for dispensing a disinfectant fluid in a room; - activating said apparatus to pass said disinfectant fluid from the liquid state to the gaseous state using pressure and thermal shock; - introduce said fluid into said room, cos? prearranged through a dispensing nozzle for a predetermined time; - turn off said equipment and leave the fluid to act for the time necessary to guarantee the bactericidal and virucidal action of the fluid, in which the aforementioned phases are commanded and controlled as follows: - before starting the appliance ignition phase, activate a series of safety checks, all tracked and validated by a special APP; - remotely switch on the equipment via a command and control device (D) so that said fluid is heated to a temperature ranging from 180?C to 220?C under a pressure ranging from 2 to 10 bar; - enter the fluid cos? set up in the room and at the same time activate a module (A) for counting the time remaining at the end of the fluid dispensing; - automatic shutdown of the appliance after the dispensing time and simultaneous activation of a module (B) for counting the remaining time for safe access to the room; - issue a warning signal for free accessibility? of the room once the aforementioned time for safe access has expired. 2. Process according to claim 1, wherein the step of activating the set of controls comprises: - verify and confirm the absence of people and/or animals in the room to be sanitized; - check and confirm that any windows communicating with the outside are closed; - check and confirm the opening of any doors of closed rooms communicating with said room; - check and confirm that the access door to said room is closed. 3. Process according to claim 1 or 2, wherein, once the series of controls has been positively terminated, ? It is possible to activate the equipment by selecting a START command from a remote command and control device. 4. Process according to claim 3, wherein with said START command a signal is sent to a CLOUD which in turn sends an activation signal to said equipment according to a pre-established operating program which is based on specific treatment data in accordance with the configuration of the room in which said equipment is installed. 5. Process according to any one of claims from 1 to 4, wherein the step of introducing the treatment fluid takes place in gaseous form with a diffusion time of between 0.5 and 1.5 seconds per square metre. 6. Process according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the activation of the counting module for the remaining time for safe access to the room takes place by calculating a time between 15 and 120 minutes. 7. Process according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein said treatment fluid is an aqueous mixture of 6% to 25% hydrogen peroxide. 8. Equipment (1) for sanitizing rooms comprising a container (2) for a disinfectant fluid connected to a high pressure pump (3), a unit vaporization (4) of said fluid connected to said pump, a nozzle (5) for delivery of the vaporized fluid, a data communication module (6), a unit? of memory (7), a processor (8). 9. Apparatus (1) according to claim 8, wherein the container (2) for the disinfectant fluid is a sterile container, under vacuum, equipped with a spout with anti-drop and anti-fraud valve and equipped with an RFID TAG with a specific encrypted code and guaranteed by Blockchain, said high-pressure pump (3) works at a pressure between 2 and 10 bar with a flow rate between 1.5 ml and 10 ml per second, called the unit? of vaporization (4) ? a high efficiency boiler such as to heat the fluid to 180-220?C. 10. Apparatus (1) according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the data communication module (6) comprises an integrated 4G/LTE modem, a Wi-Fi, an RFID and NFC reader for reading and writing the RFID TAG of the bag of disinfectant fluid, a Bluetooth 5.0 network, a Buzzer for Audio Feedback and an RGB LED for visual communication of the status of the equipment.