JP7622943B2 - Antibacterial passageway - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an antibacterial passageway that has antibacterial and antiviral properties.

It has long been known that creating a sterilizing space in a passageway connecting an isolation ward with a general ward reduces the activity of bacteria and viruses attached to people and objects entering and leaving the passageway. Patent Document 1 discloses a sterilization system unit for hospitals that sprays a sterilizing agent into the passageway space to sterilize it.

In addition, at the entrance to clean rooms where electronic parts, food, etc. are manufactured, air shower rooms are installed that blow air toward people entering and exiting, preventing the bringing in of dust attached to the human body or clothing.

With the recent increase in the number of people infected with the new coronavirus, households are taking steps such as brushing off dust from clothing at the entrance to prevent the virus from being brought into the home from outside. However, the virus that adheres to the brushed-off dust scatters into the air, and even if it does land on a wall or floor, it does not die, so the actual effectiveness of this measure is questionable. In addition, it is difficult to install large-scale equipment like a hospital-use sterilization chamber in a home, and there are health concerns about spraying disinfectant liquid towards people.

JP 2009-261596 A

The object of the present invention is therefore to provide an antibacterial passageway that can be easily installed at the entrances and exits of residences, facilities, etc., and that is expected to have not only antibacterial but also antiviral effects.

The antibacterial passage of the present invention, which has been made to solve the above problems, is an antibacterial passage having an inner surface made of a copper plate made of pure copper or a copper alloy, and characterized in that a compression molded plate made of copper material shavings is laid on the floor surface of the tunnel-shaped passage . The copper alloy can be any one of beryllium copper, phosphor bronze, and zirconium copper.

It is also preferable that the tunnel-like passage is installed at the entrance or exit of a building or room.

The antibacterial passage of the present invention has a tunnel-shaped inner surface made of copper plates made of pure copper or a copper alloy, so the antibacterial and antiviral effects of copper can reduce the activity of bacteria and viruses attached to the inner surface of the passage. Therefore, if dust attached to clothes is brushed off when passing through the antibacterial passage, the scattered bacteria and viruses will lose their activity when they come into contact with the copper plates, preventing them from being brought into the room. In addition, the antibacterial passage of the present invention has a simple structure and can be manufactured inexpensively, and does not require consumables such as disinfectant liquid, so it has the advantage of not incurring running costs.

In addition, compressed sheets of copper shavings have been laid on the floor of the corridor , which not only captures bacteria and viruses that have fallen to the ground and reduces their activity, but also provides an anti-slip effect.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention .

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below.
1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of the present invention, in which a tunnel-shaped passage 10 is installed at the entrance of a room. The side walls and ceiling of the passage 10 are made of copper plates 11.

The copper plate 11 is a plate made of pure copper or a copper alloy. As has been known for some time, copper is a metal with antibacterial and antiviral properties. The mechanism is thought to be that copper ions make holes in the envelope membrane of the virus, and free radicals generated by the copper ions break down the genetic material of bacteria and viruses. According to a research team at the National Institutes of Health (NHI) in the United States, the survival time of the new coronavirus is 72 hours on the surfaces of plastic and stainless steel, and 24 hours on the surface of cardboard, but only 4 hours on a copper surface, confirming that copper also has an antiviral effect against the new coronavirus.

Since copper ions thus exert antibacterial and antiviral effects, it is not necessary to use pure copper; copper alloys such as beryllium copper, phosphor bronze, and zirconium copper can also be used. Beryllium copper and phosphor bronze are widely used as conductive spring materials, and zirconium copper is an industrial material that is widely used as a material for welding contact tips, so it has the advantage of being easily available.

Conventionally, copper powder and copper fibers have been used as antibacterial materials that utilize the antibacterial and antiviral effects of copper, but these require a lot of processing costs to turn them into fine powder or fine fibers. In comparison, the copper plate 10 used in the present invention has the advantage that the processing costs are low and material costs can be kept low by making the plate thinner.

In the first embodiment shown in Fig. 1, the entire passage 10 is made of copper plate 11, but as in the second embodiment shown in Fig. 2, the side walls and ceiling of the passage 10 may be made of a base material 12 made of wood, resin, or the like, and the copper plate 11 may be attached to the inner surface. In order to obtain the antibacterial and antiviral effects of copper, it is not necessary to make the plate thick, and while in the first embodiment , the copper plate 11 needs to have a certain thickness to ensure the strength of the passage 10, in the second embodiment , a thinner copper plate 11 can be used, making it possible to manufacture more inexpensively.

From the standpoint of antibacterial and antiviral effects, the longer the length of the passage 10, the better; however, if it is too long, a large installation space will be required, which may be a hindrance when installing indoors, so a length of about 0.5 to 2 m is practical. If the length of the passage 10 is too short, the surface area of the copper plate 11 that comes into contact with airborne bacteria and viruses will decrease, which is undesirable.

If an antibacterial passage constructed in this way is installed at the entrance or exit of a building or room, and dust adhering to clothing is brushed off inside the passage 10 when passing through the entrance, the scattered bacteria and viruses will lose their activity upon contact with the copper plate 11, preventing them from being brought into the room. Furthermore, since copper is a metal that is safe for the human body and is used in dishes, pots, etc., there are no health concerns as there would be if a germicidal liquid were sprayed. Moreover, the copper plate 11 maintains its copper luster for a long period in the air, so the aesthetic appearance is not diminished.

In addition, since the larger the surface area, the greater the antibacterial and antiviral effects, the surface of the copper plate 11 can be made uneven or have grooves formed. Furthermore, in order to more actively remove dust adhering to the surface of the human body or clothing, a blowing means such as a fan can be provided to blow air.

In the first and second reference embodiments described above, the side walls and the inner surface of the ceiling of the passage 10 are made of copper plates 11, but it is considered that there is a high probability that the dust scattered in the air will eventually fall to the floor surface together with the attached bacteria and viruses. For this reason, in the embodiment shown in Figure 3, a compression molded plate 13 made of copper material shavings is laid on the floor surface of the tunnel-shaped passage 10.

When cutting copper material with a lathe or milling machine, a large amount of shavings is generated. As shown enlarged in Figure 3, these shavings are fine spirals, and although this varies depending on the cutting conditions, their width is about 1-10 mm, the spiral diameter is about 1-10 mm, and their thickness is about several μm to several tens of μm. This means that their surface area is very large. When these are pressed and compressed into a mold, the shavings become intertwined with each other, and falling dust and bacteria and viruses adhering to the surface can be trapped and sterilized within the internal space.

The compression-molded plate 13 made from shavings has fine irregularities, so it has a higher coefficient of friction than the copper plate 11, providing an anti-slip effect. Moreover, since the shavings were previously disposed of as waste, they can be obtained at low cost. It is not necessary for the entire floor surface to be made of compression-molded plates 13, and they can be placed at appropriate intervals.

As explained above, the antibacterial passage of the present invention can be easily installed at the entrances of residences, facilities, etc., and has the advantage of being able to exert not only antibacterial but also antiviral effects. The installation location may be outdoors or indoors, and it can be installed at the entrances of ordinary homes and apartment buildings, as well as hospitals and facilities.

10 Passage 11 Copper plate 12 Base material 13 Compression molded body

Claims (3)

An antibacterial passage having an inner surface of a tunnel-shaped passage made of a copper plate made of pure copper or a copper alloy, characterized in that a compression-molded plate made of copper material shavings is laid on the floor of the tunnel-shaped passage . The antibacterial passage according to claim 1, characterized in that the copper alloy is any one of beryllium copper, phosphor bronze, and zirconium copper. An antibacterial passage according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the tunnel-shaped passage is installed at the entrance or exit of a building or room.