CSIR-NCL innovates Digital IR Thermometer, OEU to assist in coronavirus mitigation

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune on Thursday announced two innovations -- Digital IR Thermometer and oxygen enrichment unit -- that can help in the mitigation of the coronavirus outbreak.

The CSIR-NCL's Venture Centre's incubatee BMEK headed by Pratik Kulkarni has developed a handheld digital IR thermometer, which is an important component of measures to mitigate COVID-19.

"Mobile phone or power banks can be used as a power source. The design of IR thermometers is available open-source wherein the complete know-how with mass manufacturing-ready hardware and software design will be available to manufacturers across India for free," said the Ministry of Science and Technology in a statement.

This is an effort to enable a large number of manufacturers to manufacture the thermometers and cater to their local demands. Now it is being scaled up in partnership with Bharat Electronics Limited, Pune and about 100 prototype units will be made for pilot distribution and testing at TUV Rheinland India Private Limited, Bangalore.

The second innovation is the oxygen enrichment unit (OEU), which is of the critical needs of COVID-19 patients is the need to meet the oxygen requirements due to their lungs being compromised.

"OEU is hollow fiber membrane bundles for separation and filtration of ambient air to produce enriched oxygen for patients in home and hospital settings. The prototype units are ready at Pune and will be sent to TUV for testing/validation," the ministry said.

About 10 OEU machines will be assembled by NCL and BEL in Pune and after the trials, scale-up will be done.