When dealerships open their doors in earnest in the coming weeks, a key problem will face both customers and dealerships: trying on helmets. Though to date, there aren’t any regulations regarding what dealerships must ensure to allow customers to safely try on helmets, Mountain Sports Distribution hopes to prepare dealerships to meet the highest of criteria.
MSD is proud to partner with SaniBoXX, a US-based company that has developed a helmet sanitization technology that will allow dealerships to fully sterilize helmets in between customers trying them on. These Ride Safe units are available in a single, four or twelve capacity and can be ordered immediately.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Ride Safe uses UV-C (UVGI) short wavelength UV light at 254nm, a system which is non-Ozone producing. The EPA has issued warnings about using ozone for viral decontamination of anything that is around an area where people could breathe in residual ozone, as it is known to cause respiratory problems.
UV-C Sterilization is not new – it has been used in water and air purification systems for years. More recently though, significant advances have seen whole room sterilization being done in hospitals with UV-C robots. According to SaniBoxx, China is now even using it to sterilize whole public transportation buses! Most of us are familiar with UV lights and know we get our suntans from the sun’s UV light. However, it is UV-C, a very powerful UV light that has been shown to inactivate 99.9% of germs, viruses, and pathogens. UV-C light with high dosing levels damages the RNA and DNA of viruses like COVID-19 thus stopping its ability to replicate.
Utilizing UV-C light, the SaniBoxx Ride Safe has been demonstrated to be effective against the SARS-CoV virus culture. This research is based on the CDC’s guidance in favour of using UV-C for “Decontamination and Reuse of Filtering Facepiece Respirators, against the SARS Cov2 virus that causes COVID-19”.
Ride Safe is a fully self-contained cabinet that houses 12, 4, or a single full-face helmet. Each helmet is treated internally by 3 GTL3 3W UVGI (Ultraviolet Germicidal) lamps and externally by an additional 10 UVGI GTL3 3W lamps. In total the unit has 318 W of 254nm UVGI Source. This lets the helmets reach dosing levels necessary in 8min.
The RS1 Single Unit is ideal for small and medium-sized dealerships.
The UVGI lamps are retracted into the helmet holder for ease of loading and unloading. Once the helmets are loaded the UVGI lamps are raised up internal to the helmet for optimum positioning of the internal UVGI source. The dosing cycle is controlled automatically by a programable timer.
The unit incorporates a UV Safe glass door with the safety interlock to prevent the lights from being active while the door is open. UV-C energy at this intensity is harmful to RNA and DNA, whether a virus or person, so we have incorporated this safety feature to ensure operator safety. Removable side and rear panels permit easy maintenance and cleaning of the unit. An upper fan system is incorporated, to circulate air through the system at all times, to help with helmet drying and deodorizing.
SaniBoxx’s UVGI lamps are rated at 3,000 hours. The effectiveness of these lamps is impacted by dirt in the system and degradation of the bulbs over time. To ensure that your customers know that your Ride Safe is effective SaniBoxx also provides medical-grade UV-C dosimeter cards that are used for efficacy confirmation of the system. This allows for monthly maintenance and re-certification of the system to be performed internally by your own personnel.
WHO IS SANIBOXX?
SaniBoxx is owned by Our company is DAMZ Inc.. DBA, Rush Auto Works (RAW), which has has been in business in Houston, TX for five years. As the COVID Pandemic emerged, Rush Auto Works felt a call to arms to produce products to assist in the fight against the disease by assisting the medical world.
The RS-4 is perfect for dealerships and rental operations. A 4-helmet capacity.
Says an owner of the company: “As an engineer, when we started to see the effects of this pandemic and its effect on the medical industry and our medical personnel, we started to have some rather extreme emotions.” As engineers, the group felt compelled to act. “(A)s an engineer… it is also our job to make sure that they have tools, technology, and equipment to do that job.”
“There were several groups around designing actuators for BVM’s to address the ventilator shortage. GM and FORD were asked then ordered by the POTUS to start building ventilators, with government backing I will add! So here we had the two largest automakers in our nation stepping in to do something! We, on the other hand, are perhaps the smallest automaker in the nation. No one was going to ask or order us to do anything and we certainly weren’t going to get funded to do it! But we knew we had to try… we had to do something… Anything to help!”
First, the company started with the process of sterilizing N95 Masks for reuse. They then realized that they could use this tech on their home turf of the moto-world when it became evident to them that industries that relied on helmet usage would be encountering crippling issues. If race tracks and dealerships couldn’t allow patrons and customers to try on helmets, it would be impossible to provide helmet rentals or helmet sales. Thus, the Ride Safe from SaniBoxx.
IS SANIBOXX EFFECTIVE AGAINST COVID-19?
The CDC has issued its guidance and recommendations, Decontamination and Reuse of Filtering Facepiece Respirators.
Within this, they state; “Because ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), vaporous hydrogen peroxide (VHP), and moist heat showed the most promise as potential methods to decontaminate FFRs, researchers, decontamination companies, healthcare systems, or individual hospitals should focus current efforts on these technologies.”
The RS-12 is the largest unit and designed for professional organizations, large-scale rental outlets and large dealerships.
Further, it is stated in the CDC document; Heimbuch et al. tested the performance of 1 J/cm2 of UVGI against Influenza A (H1N1), Avian influenza A virus (H5N1), Influenza A (H7N9) A/Anhui/1/2013, Influenza A (H7N9) A/Shanghai/1/2013, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV and reported virus inactivation from 99.9% to greater than 99.999% [11] UVGI is harmful.
The CDC is recommending UVGI dosing of N95 FFRs at a dosing level in excess of 1J/cm2 on all surfaces of the FFR. SaniBoxx’s testing has demonstrated we exceed that level. Additional testing is currently being done on SaniBoXX to optimize our dosing and cycle duration.
SANIBOXX IN CANADA
Mountain Sports Distribution is the exclusive distributor of SaniBoxx in the powersports industry in Canada. We are proud to sell all three Ride Safe models, including the single, 4 and 12-model of Ride Safe. Shipping is included in all prices. Please contact MSD regarding pricing or to purchase.