Industrial

Pura – Handheld Hygiene Scanner

This handheld scanning device is designed to be used in hotel rooms to assess the cleanliness of bedding products such as pillows, quilts and mattresses. The purpose of this is twofold, to assess how hygienic an item is and to extend a products life cycle improving sustainability.

Ben Harrison

Pillow Sitting on Bed

Background

Textile waste is a large issue facing the environment however, when considering this issue most people only consider fashion. Overlooking bedding which is a large part of the textile industry. Due to mixed material construction and hygiene considerations bedding poses a unique challenge to sustainability from cradle to grave.

This project investigated bedding products across their life cycle to better understand where improvements in sustainability could be made moving towards a circular economy. One area of confusion is how long a pillow for example should last. 1 year, 18 months or simply until it falls apart? In reality there is no timeframe that suits everyone, factors like sweat, drool, oils in a personal hair and skin and simply things like how regularly a pillow is used will all affect a pillows lifecycle.

This confusion results in most people either throwing out there pillows too soon or using them well after they have become unhygienic. This begged the question, how do you accurate tell how hygienic a bedding product is?
Rear Handle View

Use

To use the scanner is simple, the user begins by choosing from a variety of detachable heads that best suits their application. This head simply fits onto the front of the scanner with a friction fit. The user then presses the scanning head against the object they wish to scan, using enough pressure to keep the head flush with the object and not allowing ambient light to seep in.

From here they press and hold the scanning button, slowly drawing the scanner across the object until they see the light strip illuminate and feel a vibration from the handle. The light strip will then illuminate and tell the user how hygienic the object is.

This data is paired with the hotels RFID key system so this data can be logged and projected.
Exploded View

Manufacturing

The Pura uses the technique of UV imaging to scan for bacteria. This process involves shining longer wavelength UV light onto a surface, from here light of a specific wavelength is reflected of bacteria and filtered into sensors which can then interpret this as bacteria levels. This technology is used currently in the medical and criminal fields though it’s use is highly technical and involved. Pura aims to make this technology more accessible to the mainstream.

The body is made from injection moulded ABS plastic with all the necessary draft angles and ribs for manufacture. Choosing to part the handle along the horizontal plane as opposed to the vertical plane was done to avoid having the parting line be felt by the user. This resulted in a more complex mould but was needed for a sleek and ergonomic result.

The two main pieces are screwed together with countersunk holes allowing for smooth seamless lines. While the internals are both screwed, glued and friction fit inside the device.
Pura Scanner Hero Image

Ben Harrison

Ben is an up and coming Industrial Designer with a passion for all things hands on. Valuing the physical form and human interactions of his design's Ben has been able to establish a grounded design process based in model making and prototyping.