Local company’s hands-free unit for sanitiser
RESTRICTIONS may be lifting but medical experts are still advising us to maintain best practises when it comes to handwashing and hygiene.
And one of the key elements in this is, of course, the use of hand sanitisers. However, the majority of public sanitisers involve ‘common contact’ with other users.
To counteract this, one Wexford company has come up with a product which eliminates the need to touch the dispenser, a foot-pedal system allowing users to sanitise hands-free.
DC Fabrication, based in Blackwater, has engineered and designed a hands-free sanitiser which is already in use in a number of commercial premises throughout the county.
The product operates through a simple foot pedal, eliminating all hand common contact. It is manufactured for inside and outside use and can be moved to different locations. It can be base-mounted or wall mounted, making it particularly appealing to schools and crèches.
‘It’s something we’re really excited about,’ the company’s managing director, Dermot Cullen, said. ‘I had been looking at products online but what I came across what not suitable for our customer base. The common contact is a major problem, so that got me thinking, “is there any way we could make it better?”’
Dermot and his design engineer quickly got to work and their product has already been installed in a beverage company, an insurance firm, and at Wexford County Council buildings in Carricklawn.
‘ The feedback has been excellent. People love the idea of not having to touch the bottle. And with the way it is designed, all size sanitiser bottles will fit it,’ explained Dermot.
‘We are getting a lot of enquiries and people are very pleased to hear there’s no installation needed. There’s no electrical works required. It can be placed anywhere, or wall-mounted.
‘It’s a product that looks very well and can suit any type of business or public building. We are also developing the product in smaller sizes for the likes of crèches and primary schools and we are delighted to say that we are able to have the product ready within one week of the customer ordering it.’
And this is just the latest successful project carried out by the team at DC Fabrication.
Last year, under the guidance of Enterprise Officer Helena Dempsey, and with the help of a grant from Wexford Local Development’s LEADER Programme, DC Fabrication was able to purchase a new state of the art CNC laser-cutting machine.
This subsequently enabled the company to provide laser-cutting facilities to other mild steel fabrication shops in the south east. Prior to this, companies in the region had to purchase their equipment from Kerry, Meath and Limerick. The LEADER programme provided funding of over €180,000 for the purchase of the equipment.