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Lionelthelunatic

11/19/20 3:54 PM

#141167 RE: HorizenBull #141165

I have to disagree on the anilyizer. It is an awesome piece of equipment. It will save a nursing home, hospital, airline you name it money. One person could disinfect an entire wing of a nursing facility while that section is at lunch. One person instead of a crew of people. The problem I see is PCTL does not know how to market it. We need sales reps to show off what the machine can do for their bottom line. No one except the stock holders and a few hospitals know about it.

falon

11/20/20 10:10 AM

#141264 RE: HorizenBull #141165

Infection Control Systems (ICS) in Hospitals is a necessary piece of equipment.

Whether it is PCTL's or some other company, ICS are being widely used.
PCTL have only been leasing the Annihilyzer for a couple of years and have not really penetrated the US market other than NYC. Their system is far superior than most others. They have a major contract with the UK NHS.


PCTL is in a great position to disrupt the market share of contracts for Infection Control Systems with Healthcare and other industries.

Why did they focus on Healthcare first?


Hospital Disinfectant Products Market to Expand at Growth Rate of ~ 5.3% CAGR from 2018 to 2026 to Reach US$ 17.1 Billion through 2026:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hospital-disinfectant-products-market-to-expand-at-growth-rate-of--5-3-cagr-from-2018-to-2026-to-reach-us-17-1-bn-through-2026-transparency-market-research-300999388.html

PCTL has the best solution to a multi-billion dollar problem.

Introducing the Most Technologically Advanced Disinfection System Ever Created to Eliminate Hospital Associated Infections (HAIs) using Patented RFID Technology for Tracking and Disinfecting Protocols.


Annihilyzer: A New Disruptive Technology in the World of Hospital Disinfection


Why is the Annihilyzer Infection Control System one of the best and most versatile in the world ?

The Annihilyzer System is truly a cost-effective Green Seal Certified end-to-end total facility disinfection and cleaning system. This system generates both a hospital grade disinfectant and a very effective cleaning solution to cover virtually all of your cleaning and disinfection needs. These on-site generators produce stable electrochemically activated solutions, OSG 460D - Hospital Grade Disinfectant that is effective against C. diff, MRSA, and VRE, and an OSG 11-12 All Purpose Cleaner, and downtime for the process is only 15 - 20 minutes with no special preparation or precautions necessary.

The Annihilyzer System doesn't stop there, though. The icing on the cake is our state-of-the-art whole-room and handheld electrostatic sprayers that make quick work of completely disinfecting a room. Our 460D disinfectant can even be used to disinfect floors without leaving a haze or residue. We use a powerful non-synthetic disinfectant along with an automated electrostatic spray cart and/or electrostatic sprayers and patented RFID tracking technology that together are unmatched the industry to ensure proper and complete application.


What can the Annihilyzer do?

Save time and money by generating disinfectant and all-purpose cleaner on-site, on-demand

Eliminate the toughest bacteria, viruses, and fungi, including C. diff, C. auris, MRSA, VRE, blood-borne pathogens, and more.
Create 'industry best' protocols and 'push' them out to your cleaning staff in real-time with the Annihilist dashboard and mobile app

Generate reports that show when the areas were cleaned, who cleaned them, and what was done

Increase staff efficiency and effectiveness with process tracking, training, and accountability


How does the Annihilyzer save companies money?
Costs associated with purchasing and managing chemicals – eliminated

Freight charges for chemical deliveries – eliminated

Chemical container disposal or recycling costs – eliminated

Personal protection gear for cleaning – eliminated

Wastewater disposal costs and related fines for non-compliance – eliminated

Workers comp claims due to chemical burns and fume inhalation – eliminated

Happier, healthier and more productive workers

Same or better cleaning power than traditional hazardous chemicals for less

Eliminates costs associated with ordering, inventorying and disposing of chemicals and containers


Versatile
Grieco added: “All of our hospital customers using our infection control system and disinfectant are utilising the systems as a front-line defence throughout their facilities, including in all public area such as restrooms, lobbies, waiting rooms, elevators, corridors, cafeterias, etc. all throughout the day and night and in the presence of patients, staff and visitors.”

What other Infection Control System can do that?

What other system can provide a disinfectant and cleaner?

Results

Why would a hospital sign a 5-year agreement with PCTL when they could have signed a 2 or 3 year agreement?
I'll tell you why - RESULTS RESULTS RESULTS
SUNY Downstate Medical Center chose to renew their contract with the Company for an additional five years after utilizing the system for one year.
What are the chances at some point in the future when the other SUNY hospitals (Syracuse and Stony Brook) Infection Control Contracts expire that they sign with PCTL?

Why has every hospital that went through the 60 day trial period decided to do a multi-year contract? I'll tell you why - RESULTS RESULTS RESULTS

How many hospitals are in NYC?

There are 62 acute care hospitals in New York City.

How many hospitals in NYC have at least one Annihilyzer System?

PCTL has installed at least 14 systems and gained 22.5% market share in NYC hospitals in less than 18 months.

Most Technologically Advanced Disinfection System Ever Created
Annihilyzer the future for Healthcare and other Industries

During the Coronavirus Pandemic a Hospital with the Annihilyzer in place was in a better position than a hospital without it. Many hospitals will be asking themselves what could we have done differently? If they know about the Annihilyzer, having one will certainly be one of their answers. This is not the last one so they have to put themselves in the best position for future events.

What is a better investment for a whole room Infection Control System:

Annihilyzer versus an UV system?

They both disinfect effectively however the Annihilyzer provides an additional products, an all purpose cleaner and handheld electrostatic sprayers that can be used in other parts of the hospital in the presence of people because it is “Green Certified”.
Also the Annihilyzer cost less than half that of one of the best UV system on the market, the Xenex “LightStrike” cost about $125,000,

Annihilyzer versus a Chemical (Hydrogen Peroxide) based system?

They both disinfect effectively however the Annihilyzer provides an additional products, an all purpose cleaner and handheld electrostatic sprayers that can be used in other parts of the hospital in the presence of people because it is “Green Certified”.
Chemical based solutions require protective equipment, are more expensive and are harsh on furniture and one company called Hanosil sells their machine for under $10,000 however it costs $20 in product to clean each room.

falon

11/20/20 10:29 AM

#141272 RE: HorizenBull #141165

In Coronavirus Fight, Robots Report For Disinfection Duty

https://www.forbes.com/sites/richblake1/2020/04/17/in-covid-19-fight-robots-report-for-disinfection-duty/?sh=622deb902ada


Large-scale coronavirus testing continues to lag and a vaccine could be at least one year away. But in the battle against world pandemic a rapidly expanding brigade of robots is answering an urgent call of duty: surface disinfection.

A mobile robot cleans a hospital room.
A UVD robot disinfects a room at the ABANO hospital in Northern Italy. UVD ROBOTS
They're rolling in by the hundreds and not just into hospitals and nursing homes but across a wide spectrum of public spaces, including government buildings, offices, hotels, airports and universities. Administrators of all stripes, desperate to keep people safe, are looking to a global robotics industry that has been quick to respond.

Denmark's UVD Robots, a leader in fully autonomous ultraviolet-light-disinfection robots, shipped hundreds of them to China in February and hundreds more throughout Europe in March. A much smaller number have arrived in the U.S. but several hundred more are on the way, said UVD Robots' CEO Per Juul Nielsen, speaking by telephone April 15.

"Hospitals around the world are waking up to autonomous disinfection," Nielsen said. "We can't build these robots fast enough."

In San Antonio, Texas, Xenex, another leading provider of UV-light-zapping germicidal robots, has shipped hundreds of their LightStrike bots around the world, including to nearly 70 Veterans Administration hospitals in the U.S. and to ten sites run by the U.S. Department of Defense, Xenex CEO Morris Miller told CNBC earlier this week.

Healthcare-sector suppliers like UVD, Xenex and others still are a long way from being able to meet exploding global demand for automated disinfection solutions but it's not just specialized service robots riding into battle.


Human-friendly industrial robots, also known as collaborative robots, are being shifted away from tasks, such as machine tending and warehouse rack-stacking, and redeployed in the war on coronavirus.

"In the mobile [robot] space, there are a huge amount of inbound [inquiries] surrounding [UV-light and chemical] disinfection," said Melonee Wise, CEO of Fetch Robotics in San Jose, Calif.

Wise, in comments made during a recent webcast held by the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), said that her staff is fielding up to 20 leads a day, from representatives at companies and institutions, all wanting to know: "can you autonomously disinfect my facility?"

Earlier this month, a team of researchers at the USC Viterbi Center for Advanced Manufacturing, working intensely (while social distancing) for weeks, were able to retool a semi-autonomous mobile manipulator, a type of robot commonly used in small factories and warehouses.

Their resulting modification, the “ADAMMS-UV” robot, comprises three different hardware components. For a mobile base, the team used an Inspectorbots’ SuperMega Bot; mounted on that base is the UR5 arm from Universal Robots; on the arm, a Robotiq two-fingered gripper.

Then they fitted their creation with UV-light wands, augmented vision guidance and new software so it could learn detailed, dangerous disinfection tasks in places such as dorm rooms and offices, environments that are going to be difficult to clean thoroughly using purely autonomous mobile disinfection robots that do not have arms.

The USC team’s robot is paired with a human operator working remotely, making high-level decisions, such as pause, open that drawer.

"As a society we have a tremendous amount of work ahead of us to disinfect public spaces," said Satyandra Gupta, the director of the USC Center for Advanced Manufacturing and the Smith International Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.

Gupta's group was responsible for making sure the robot works.

"This means we’ll need to apply all kinds of mobile robots - a lot of them," Gupta said.

In recent weeks, Xenex has seen a surge in sales coming from their usual customers, such as hospitals and urgent care facilities, as well as a wide variety of office buildings, companies, government agencies and hotels.

A Xenex LightStrike robot in an OR.
Some facilities have moved their Xenex LightStrike robots (avove) from the OR to their Emergency ... [+] XENEX
Because the company has an international network of suppliers and distributors, it sensed, even in December, that a pandemic possibly was brewing.

During January, as the virus spread around China, Xenex began ramping up production. Over a few days in February, they shipped dozens of robots to Italy.

“At any other time, we celebrate these wins," Irene Hahn, VP-Sales, said in an email to colleagues after the big Italian order came in. "However, in light of what is happening, this one is different … we are absolutely humbled.”

All told, Xenex's LightStrike robots have been deployed in more than 500 healthcare facilities worldwide.

Similarly, there’s been a surge of interest in competitor UVD Robots, capping a four-year mission to build, test and come to market with an autonomous mobile robot that can enter a room then safely disinfect it with UV-light.

UVD is owned by privately held Blue Ocean Robotics, known for its Robot Venture Factory in the Southern Denmark city of Odense.

Specializing in conceiving and commercializing problem-solving service robots, Blue Ocean finances the development phase, moving each viable robot line into its own subsidiary-venture company. Other portfolio holdings include GoBe Robots, a mobile telepresence robot for communication, social inclusion and CO2 reductions and PTR Robots, a mobile robot for safe patient handling and rehabilitation.

The market for service robots in general has been growing. Some 271,000 of these types of robots were sold globally last year, according to data from the International Federation of Robotics. That's an increase of 61% over 2018.

Entering this year, UVD's view was that more healthcare institutions were going to want their robots owing to something else starting to spread — greater awareness about the dangers of healthcare associated infections.

The UVD robot's HAI-eradicating effectiveness — for example, being able to reduce an ICU room's bacteria level by 80% — was clinically verified in 2018 at Odense University Hospital where units went through extensive tests involving all kinds of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, as well as tests relating to time of exposure, angles, shadowing effects, and reflections.

Then came a targeted marketing campaign, moving from one regional healthcare sector to the next, in Scandinavian countries and eventually throughout Europe. Robot sales were steadily rising in 2019. At the end of last year, UVD projected an ambitious 2020 growth rate target: 400%.

"We already hit five times that," Nielsen said.

Put another way, when a three-figure order from China came in February, Nielsen explained, it meant the company had nearly sold more robots that single day than it had during its full first year of commercial viability.

In the Middle East, where decision making is more centralized relative to Europe and the U.S., "some countries’ leaders have just said, ‘we need 100 of these robots,’" said Claus Risager, co-founder and CEO of Blue Ocean Robotics, speaking to The Robot Report.

Imitators need to be scrutinized, Risager cautioned. “So many people are trying to copy the UVD robots,” he said. "There’s more to our product than putting light bulbs on a robot."

“We’re now seeing how mobile robots can be deployed to safeguard people, which, hopefully is changing negative perceptions some people have about robots,” said Jeff Burnstein, A3’s President. “What these applications for disinfecting, protecting hospital personnel, and related tasks illustrate is that robotics is an important technology to assist people, not replace them.”

Prior to the pandemic, USC researchers had already created the Agile Dexterous Autonomous Mobile Manipulation System, or ADAMMS, to do cutting-edge machine tending tasks such as moving or loading parts or materials. In a large industrial setting, such tasks involve conveyor belts, autonomous guided vehicles and large robotic arms, overkill and too expensive for smaller manufacturers that still rely mainly on humans. The original ADAMMS was designed to be semi-autonomous with a video-game style interface so a human operator could give the bot high-level instructions, as needed.

Modifying ADAMMS to do a wider array of COVID-19 disinfection tasks, the USC team earlier this month rolled out ADAMMS-UV, which resembles a mini-airline-beverage cart on four sturdy tricycle-sized tires. It’s able to drive itself near objects of interest and manipulate them, so as to reach spaces that can't be treated by UV sources mounted on a mobile base. A depth camera is affixed to the wrist of the robotic arm and there are multiple cameras on the sides of the base, providing situational awareness for the operator who can take control at any time.

"Keeping a human in the loop is required," said Hyojeong Kim, a student on the team. "In a cluttered area, a robot might need some guidance."

UV light is a proven disinfectant. Coronavirus on a surface can be killed when exposed to UV light of sufficient intensity for an appropriate amount of time. The robot can hold the UV wand over a surface and move it at the right speed, meticulously, consistently, without any mistakes, in a manner that a human would find pretty much impossible.

"We know hospitals are already using mobile robots with a UV column to perform disinfection,” said Pradeep Rajendran, a post-doctoral student on the USC team. "Every surface in the line of sight can be sanitized using this method. But dorms include hard to reach areas UV light won't reach."

Eventually, a two-armed disinfection robot will be perfected, Gupta predicted, hinting at his team's next project.

Hazardous-duty mobile robot systems have been around for decades. Soldiers and first responders use them to diffuse bombs, rip open vehicles and sniff out toxic chemicals. Northrop Grumman Remotec has been a leader in this space since the 1990s when it built a robot that could remove radioactive materials from government research labs.

The first nuclear material handling robot was created by the mechanical engineering team at General Mills when the food-making giant was repurposed for secret weapon production during the Second World War in what essentially was a Minneapolis version of the Manhattan Project.

By the mid-1950s, Joe Engelberger, often called the father of robotics, founded the world’s first industrial robotics company, Unimation.

Around the same time, General Mills engineers created the “Little Ranger,” considered to be among the earliest mobile remote manipulators.

In 1961, the mechanical division was spun off from General Mills as Programmed and Remote Systems Corporation, which today is PaR Systems, makers of automated manufacturing and material handling equipment.

After selling Unimation to Westinghouse in 1982, Engelberger spent the rest of his life working on service robotics. He founded Transitions Research Corporation, a think tank company doing research funded by NASA. The Johnson Space Center backed its creation of a two-armed, mobile robotic courier that was later repurposed for use in hospitals allowing nursing staffers to be redirected to more valuable roles. Transitions Research eventually went public, becoming HelpMate Robotics.

“Engelberger was putting robots in hospitals back in the 1990s,” A3’s Burnstein said.

Right up until the time of his death in 2015, Engelberger talked about his vision of the future of automation.

“He saw a world in which people and robots work together to help humanity,” Burnstein said. “Now we’re really seeing it. Joe would be proud.”