Salud de Sol is an ETHOS group sponsored by the University of Dayton and winner of $10,000 in a 2008 business plan competition.\u00a0 This organization is requesting advice and ideas concerning a few technical problems associated with building a viable solar autoclave.\u00a0 Their humanitarian project is currently being continued from last year.\u00a0 The team of engineering students started a non-profit organization with a clear intent to help third world communities improve local healthcare.\u00a0 Salud de Sol hopes to achieve this by providing a cost effective method for sterilizing medical instruments. Their focus is on Nicaraguan health clinics and communities that are located in areas off-grid or in places where electricity is unreliable or nonexistent.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s original design does work. An operational prototype could be built if they were not restricted as to where they could obtain the parts.\u00a0 The goal is to create a working model that can be mass produced using cost effective materials that are available locally in Sabana Grande, Nicaragua. There are\u00a0a couple\u00a0simple criteria for incorporating components into the autoclave.\u00a0 If a part can be reused, then it should cost less than 10 dollars. If it cannot be reused, then it should cost no more than 1 cent.\u00a0 Such strict pricing limitations will ensure that the device they end up manufacturing is affordable to the target communities.<\/p>\n
The current challenge facing the group is that some seals and valves created from spare parts leak or are not durable enough.\u00a0 Salus de Sol needs ideas and welcomes suggestions. So far the items members have sourced locally in the Sabana Grande area to use as pressure relief valves have proven to be too insensitive.\u00a0 They ended up using a commercially available version from a pressure cooker instead of trying to fashion one from scratch.\u00a0 Fortunately, these were available locally without buying an entire cooker.<\/p>\n
Another challenge has been making an accurate sterilization indicator.\u00a0 The previous design had to be abandoned because of pressure being built up as the device heated.\u00a0 It used a cylinder filled with polywax2000 with a washer on top.\u00a0 As the wax melted, the washer would slowly sink to the bottom at a known rate.\u00a0 Their next design still needs to be tested.\u00a0 It uses two cylinders with one empty and the other filled with the wax.\u00a0 As the wax melts, it runs into the empty compartment at a known rate.<\/p>\n
The pressure vessel itself has a problem with the seals.\u00a0 Aluminum end caps with a silicone pie pan were used in a second version.\u00a0 These parts were fastened together with hex bolts and wing nuts.\u00a0 This design initially worked during the pressure test.\u00a0 Team members got the system up to 32 psig when they only needed a solid 15.\u00a0 However, the seals failed when they added heat in the oven test.<\/p>\n
While most of the original staff are still active (Anna Young, Daniel Hensel, and Lori Hanna), this year they expanded their team to include a member from the business school, Nathan David.\u00a0 When they finally get the mechanism working properly and to specs, they need the business expertise for distribution purposes.\u00a0 They also figure that they could get new perspective on the project outside of the engineering department during the continued research and development phase.\u00a0 Another fairly new member is Erin.\u00a0 She has mechanical engineering experience that will be very helpful.<\/p>\n
These advances on the frontiers of cost effective sterilization are very exciting. Hopefully, this non-profit group will be able to reach their goals soon. In the meantime, if you need to make a smart buying decision about an autoclave for your facility, read our free report<\/a> to find out what your options are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Salud de Sol is an ETHOS group sponsored by the University of Dayton and winner of $10,000 in a 2008 business plan competition.\u00a0 This organization is requesting advice and ideas concerning a few technical problems associated with building a viable solar autoclave.\u00a0 Their humanitarian project is currently being continued from last year.\u00a0 The team of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.sterilizers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}