Earlier Versions

Maybe there’s something here that will be useful to others as you think about how to adapt the design to your specific needs or location.

Also, maybe there is something in these early versions that can be used to design devices to treat things other than N95 masks. For example, the design might be enlarged to closet size so gowns can be treated, though anyone interested in that will need to think about how to reduce wrinkles and folds in the fabric.

Version 2 was a wooden structure shaped like a pizza oven. We used a flap of foil clipped over the opening as a shield. It generated plenty of UVGI to be effective, but masks would have to be flipped to be treated on both sides. This meant that a contaminated mask touched the bottom of the oven, then after flipping the clean, treated side would contact a surface that the untreated side had just sat on. We thought this would be the final design, so we built a LOT of wooden frames….
Version 1 was the same pizza oven style box, but was built quickly using a pvc pipe frame with foil-covered cardboard sides zip tied to it. It delivered plenty of UVGI horsepower, but it looked like it was built by a deranged plumber….

Future Possibilities

We just saw this design put out by SUNY-Binghampton. Same basic principle for using UVGI, but a larger format. The power and quantity of UV-C bulbs would need to increase proportional to the size of the device, but a large device like this could handle a clothes rack-size object that maybe could handle gowns and the like?