Laundry Disinfection with Sensor-Based Disinfectant Dosing Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for disinfecting laundry in high-risk facilities often result in disinfectant overuse, leading to environmental harm and unnecessary costs, as they rely on overdosing to ensure disinfection, and lack effective monitoring for sufficient disinfectant levels during the washing process.
Innovation Solution
A method that measures disinfectant concentration in the treatment liquid before and after disinfection, allowing for targeted dosing and ensuring a minimum residual concentration for complete disinfection, using sensors to monitor and adjust disinfectant levels during the washing process, particularly in a tunnel washing machine setup.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If disinfectant is overdosed to ensure complete disinfection, then disinfection reliability is improved, but environmental harm and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback control system where sensors continuously measure the disinfectant concentration in the treatment liquid during the washing process. Based on these measurements, the control unit adjusts the disinfectant dosing to maintain the concentration within an optimal range, ensuring complete disinfection without excessive dosing. This closed-loop feedback mechanism eliminates the need for overdosing while maintaining disinfection reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of disinfectant concentration from a fixed overdosed amount to a dynamically adjusted value based on real-time measurements. By monitoring and adjusting the concentration parameter during the washing process, the system achieves complete disinfection with minimal disinfectant usage, thereby reducing environmental harm.
2Reliability
If disinfectant is overdosed to ensure complete disinfection, then disinfection reliability is improved, but costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The feedback control system measures disinfectant concentration in real-time and adjusts dosing accordingly, ensuring that the minimum effective concentration is maintained without excessive accumulation. This prevents unnecessary disinfectant consumption while guaranteeing complete disinfection, thereby reducing costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses automated sensors and control units to monitor and adjust disinfectant dosing without manual intervention. The self-regulating mechanism ensures optimal disinfectant usage by automatically maintaining the required concentration level, eliminating waste and reducing operational costs.
3Quantity of substance
If disinfectant concentration is monitored during washing, then disinfectant usage is optimized, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex manual monitoring and adjustment procedures with automated optical or electrochemical sensors that continuously measure disinfectant concentration. These sensors are integrated with a control unit that automatically adjusts dosing, substituting simple electronic components for complex mechanical monitoring systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring system is designed to be multi-functional, serving both measurement and control functions through integrated sensors and control units. The same sensor system that measures concentration also provides feedback for automatic dosing adjustment, reducing overall system complexity while achieving optimized disinfectant usage.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach ensures reliable disinfection without significant overuse of disinfectants, providing accurate and meaningful measurements to assess disinfection completeness, thereby reducing environmental impact and costs while ensuring sterile laundry.
Implementation Method 1
at least one sensor for measuring the concentration of the disinfectant in the treatment liquid is provided
Data Source
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AI summary
Laundry, especially if it may be contaminated, is disinfected during washing. A disinfectant is added to the treatment fluid for this purpose. This addition is currently based on experience, with an overdose being used as a precaution. As a result, excess disinfectant enters the wastewater along with the used treatment fluid. This is environmentally harmful. Furthermore, too much disinfectant is required, unnecessarily increasing disinfection costs. The invention provides for taking a sample of the used treatment fluid, at least after washing, and using sensors to measure whether and, if so, how much disinfectant remains. Only if the measurement shows that the used treatment fluid still contains a minimum amount of disinfectant can sufficient disinfection be assumed.The method according to the invention thus contributes to increasing disinfection safety without unnecessary overdosing of disinfectant.