Laundry Review

by Danish cleaning equipment firm Nilfisk. Carnegie Robots designed and manufactured the artificial intelligence and robotic systems that can map an area and then clean it without human assistance. By partnering with the airport they were able to test and refine the systems. “An airport, as a particular application space, is very representative of many public spaces; high traffic, big open areas, reflective surfaces and a lot of safety concerns. Our primary priority OXWASH, has taken on the challenge to assist the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic by providing a special cleaning service for medical scrubs, personal protective equipment and uniforms. Since the start of the outbreak there has been a surge in demand for the protective equipment from hospitals, care homes and GP practices, reported OxMail.

OXWASH operates on bicycles across the cities of Oxford and Cambridge, working around the clock to free capacity and meet the high demand for sterile healthcare laundry.

OXWASH founder Dr Kyle Grant, who was born in Cape Town, said: “We have to be able to maintain very high levels of cleanliness and adopt several new levels of PPE and processes to operate safely in the recent COVID-19 outbreak. The latest demand comes from GPs who have not previously used scrubs

with this testing is to understand how effective the addition of UVC is as a disinfectant in combination with a Nilfisk scrubber/dryer”, said Carnegie Robotics CFO Daniel Beaven.

With Fill-in mode, the scrubber/dryer operator drives the area perimeter and the Advance Liberty SC50 automatically plans a path to clean the interior of the space. With its proprietary sensor suite and software, the scrubber/dryer

Niche Oxford laundry service meets demand for sterile healthcare laundry

Aniche laundry business,

recognises unknown obstacles as small and PPE. We realised we had to help and have the technology to provide a service at a time of crisis. We’re proud to be able to meet the needs of frontline NHS heroes and heroines.”

In addition, there is a need for services from several hotels that have been taken over by the NHS to accommodate key workers during the crisis.

Dr Grant added: “It has been vital to get our service right and we have now successfully undertaken a pilot with two practices, including the Jericho Health Centre. We have developed a threestage cleaning process to achieve levels of sterilisation that exceed the NHS and HSE guidelines. In addition to high temperature washing, we are using an ozone process known to be effective against microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses as well as allergens that was originally developed for NASA to sterilise payloads for space missions. Finally, a chemical sanitisation rinse doubles up as a stain removal step.” as a tennis ball and then automatically manoeuvres around them, making the Advance Liberty SC50 safe to use in open or congested spaces. Chemical disinfectant can be added to the process for a deeper clean, and the UV rays then pass over, creating three different levels of cleaning for the surface.

The autonomous scrubber/dryers are the only such third-party safety-certified machines in the world, a certification process approved by the American National Standards Institute that ensures safe operation in public spaces. The partnership with Carnegie Robotics is the first step of an airport-wide strategy to deploy technology solutions and multi-layered cleaning processes to enhance the health and safety of the travelling public. The UV technology is designed to kill microbes in high-traffic areas, increasing cleanliness and helping to restore confidence in traveling.

Sources: techhq.com, Blue Sky News.

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OXWASH was founded in 2017 by Dr Grant, arising from frustration with the laundry service at many Oxford colleges. Armed with just a bike and a backpack he started collecting and washing clothes for fellow students, this quickly snowballed into a growing on-demand laundry business as interest grew.

For more information visit: www.oxwash.com