Rwanda Builds A Prototype Sanitizing Tunnel

A local digital fabrication laboratory in Rwanda, Fablab Rwanda, has built a prototype Covid-19 spray door frame.

The working prototype, of a 360-degree sanitizing tunnel, marks the first-ever of its kind in Rwanda’s ongoing fight against the coronavirus. The machine resembles a door frame metal detector, equipped with motion sensors to spray a 360-degree mist of foggy hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in an automated response to human movement. The sanitizing tunnel has a total of 7 mist nozzles, 3 at each side, and 1 from the ceiling. To reach the nozzle, the spray flows from a fiber tank, pressured by an electric pump.

With a 90 percent disinfection effect, the machine has a sterilization capacity of 1,000 people per day. While the prototype can only host one person at a time, the manufacturer says a finished product will be able to spray two people at once. Inside the tunnel, one needs to turn around at least two times, with raised arms for effective, full-body disinfection.

With the government of Rwanda having lifted some of the lockdown measures, such as allowing public and private businesses to resume, the invention proves a variety of use cases, according to Danny Bizimana, general manager of FabLab Rwanda.

“It can be used in every entrance like hospitals, supermarkets, city to city entrances, schools and more,” he said.

Part of a global chain of digital labs, FabLab Rwanda built the spray machine a few days after its medical face shields made from ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) gained approval for mass production by the national Foods and Drugs Authority.

Open since 2016, Fablab Rwanda has been at the tip of the spear in leading digital manufacturing in the country’s movement to boost domestic production. One year after its launch, the lab community was already making 3D-printed prosthetics at a price several numbers lower than the global markets.