The Emergence of Pre-Packed Solutions for Emergency Situations (Safety)
The Customer Issue
New draft regulations in the USA prohibit the use of bulk materials in emergency environments. Existing customers who had been using loose fill successfully for many years approached Molecular Products for help in supplying pre-packed ready to use alternatives.
Understanding the Issue
Molecular Products Ltd is a world leading supplier of soda lime and has supplied products both loose and pre-packed ready to use. However most of the pre-filled ready to use material has been supplied for use in low flow anaesthesia. Our expertise is in smaller scale pre-packaged units.
The Solution
Simply scaling up small cartridges is not a satisfactory solution. To work reliably in emergency life saving conditions attention needs to be paid to:
- removal capacity versus pressure drop,
- balancing the structural strength and flammability against weight and resistance to corrosion
- an extended shelf life,
- ensuring that the packaging could ensure the performance of the product at the moment of critical requirement
- not being too bulky
Molecular has drawn on many years of experience with gas flows and throughput in smaller cartridge systems to design and manufacture a large cartridge to meet the demanding needs of this application.
A custom moulded part was designed and manufactured in UK to meet the stringent product life and safety requirements.
The Results
HiCap CO2 and HiCap CO are now commercially available and both demonstrate outstanding contaminant removal performance (carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide) in emergency situations.
They been very well received for mine safety refuges as well as shipbuilders constructing emergency response vessels for ‘citadel' crew protection.
These products serve a critical requirement in the market place and will potentially save many lives in emergency situations.