Portable ultrasonic instrument to locate, quantify, and record air leakage pathways in hospital wards, cleanrooms, and more.
The Portascanner® COVID-19 (supplied with the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT) is a unique ultrasonic technology from Coltraco Ultrasonics capable of identifying the exact location of any leak site within a structure, measuring the physical size of the leak, calculating the airflow rate through it, and estimating the air permeability of the structure or room as a whole.
Ultrasonic air permeability tester
The Portascanner® COVID-19 (supplied with the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT) is a new technology developed by Coltraco Ultrasonics to help prevent the spread of airborne infectious diseases such as COVID-19 in clinical environments. After receiving a UK Government Grant and being assessed as “outstanding” by InnovateUK in early 2021, Coltraco Ultrasonics is proud to offer this valuable tool for airborne spread mitigation to the NHS and domestic and international markets.
Existing methods for airflow measurement are disruptive and costly and often do not allow operators to identify specific leak locations. Meanwhile, the Portascanner® COVID-19 (supplied with the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT) is the only device worldwide capable of quickly, reliably, and non-invasively locating and quantifying leaks and the first to use ultrasound to directly measure leak sizes. It is a hand-held instrument that, with minimal training, can be deployed regularly with patients and staff in situ.
The Portascanner® COVID-19 (supplied with the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT) is used as a maintenance instrument for cleanrooms, isolators, dental practices, and hospitals. It allows maintenance operators to ensure complete airtightness or to ensure that the air permeability falls below the required maximum level. The air permeability reference value is adjustable in the settings, but by default it is set to 2.5 m³/(h·m²) at 50 Pa. This is the standard maximum, below which negative pressurisation cannot be reliably obtained according to BSRIA standards.
The instrument has the following capabilities:
- Locating leak-sites
- Quantifying leak cross-sectional areas
- Calculating air flow rates
- Calculating air permeability
- Photographing leak sites
- Recording & exporting the location and severity of leaks for reporting purposes
Unique Selling Points
- Capable of non-disruptive identification and quantification of leak sites to help in achieving adequate airtightness for pressurised rooms, without needing the room to be pressurised beforehand
- Provides knowledge of size of leak (cross-sectional area) and air flowrate through it, relating each leak to air permeability requirements for compliance to healthcare standards
- Know where your leaks are and their significance – avoid having to seal every opening in the room which can be time-consuming, disruptive, and cumbersome
- Improve efficiency and quality of airtight room maintenance – locate leaks, accurately predict the leak site size and its significance, seal the leaks that matter
- Provideevidence of your maintenance programme – locate, quantify, and record leaks as well as photograph and export a test report all in one hand-held instrument
- Grants the user the ability to fully assess a room or ward prior to the installation of FPE (Fan Pressurisation Equipment) meaning considerableresource may be saved by significantly reducing the risk of installing FPE in an unsuitable room
Features
- The ability to switch between ‘quick test’ and ‘full test’ modes, the former for quickly locating leaks and creating a record of their locations, and the latter for quantifying them
- Different power settings for the generator and gain settings for the receiver to allow accurate testing regardless of the size and shape of the room
- The ability to filter records by date or location in order to export the desired records via USB
- Portable and easy to use in a 7” hand-held tablet format – can be used in-house by hospital ward personnel or by third party maintenance teams
- Photographs and records are all easily transferable to other systems viaUSB
Benefits
- Ability to determine individual air leakage rates through specific walls, doors, seals etc.
- Some current practices involve measuring the air permeability of the whole surface of the room in a time-consuming process and assuming that the leakage rate through a given section of it will be equal to: size of section / size of room surface x total room leakage rate. This is not likely to be accurate because certain areas will be more prone to leakage than others. Our instrument solves this by quantifying each individual leak.
- Ability to determine the exact location of leaks, meaning remedial measures can be taken. This means one does not need to undergo the “patch and hope” procedure that is currently used.
- Far quicker and much less troublesome than the alternative
- Classified as maintenance equipment, not medical equipment, so does not require medical certification
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