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Zambo Norte university fabricates disinfection mist chambers

By Gualberto Laput

April 3, 2020, 9:17 pm

<p><strong>DISINFECTANT CHAMBER.</strong> Aileen Hamoy Adriancem (right), of the Jose Rizal Memorial Hospital in Dapitan City, receives Friday (April 3, 2020) the automated disinfectant chamber (located at the back) from Dr. Daylinda Luz Reluya-Laput, Jose Rizal Memorial State University president (left). The university, through its fabrication laboratory, manufactures the disinfectant chamber out of junk materials.<em> (PNA photo by Gualberto M. Laput)</em></p>

DISINFECTANT CHAMBER. Aileen Hamoy Adriancem (right), of the Jose Rizal Memorial Hospital in Dapitan City, receives Friday (April 3, 2020) the automated disinfectant chamber (located at the back) from Dr. Daylinda Luz Reluya-Laput, Jose Rizal Memorial State University president (left). The university, through its fabrication laboratory, manufactures the disinfectant chamber out of junk materials. (PNA photo by Gualberto M. Laput)

DAPITAN CITY, Zamboanga del Norte – The Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) of the lone university in this province is manufacturing automated disinfection chambers out of junked materials.

“We are compelled to improvise because of the strict implementation of community quarantine,” said Engr. Andrew Gallemit, head of Jose Rizal Memorial State University’ (JRMSU) FabLab located at its main campus in this city.

Gallemit underscored the initiative at a time when ways to fight the 2019 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) are extremely needed amid lack of equipment, transportation shutdown, and mostly closed businesses.

In an interview with the Philippine News Agency Friday, Gallemit said they use diaphragm or fuel pumps from junked car engines, mist hose used in greenhouse and microwave sensors, and micro-controllers used in their robotics class.

“The chamber frame is made of unused wood and plastic from the university,” he said.

Explaining how the device works, he said: “The body heat of a person in the chamber is detected by the microwave sensor, which is transmitted to the microcontroller that switches on the diaphragm or fuel pump and release the disinfectant mist for several seconds.”

JRMSU’s first automated disinfectant chamber was donated Thursday to the Jose Rizal Memorial Hospital in this city while the second, still being made, will be donated to the Zamboanga del Norte Medical Center in nearby Dipolog City.

The Port of Dapitan and several other local government units (LGUs) have called on JRMSU administration to request automated disinfection chambers.

“Other LGUs are making their own disinfection facility, but they are using pumps used in a carwash, which are strong and would wet the person being disinfected,” Gallemit said.

Top university officials and a donor from Dipolog City are also contributing money to buy materials as they foresaw the importance of mass-producing automated disinfection chambers.

JRMSU has five campuses in this province. The main campus is located in this city while the rest are in Dipolog City and the municipalities of Katipunan, Tampilisan, and Siocon. It has close to 19,000 students, who were sent home because of the Covid-19, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared as a pandemic. (PNA)

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