Naval Dockyard develops Rs 1000 infrared-based temperature gun to help fight Coronavirus

Indian Navy's Naval Dockyard in Mumbai has designed and developed its own handheld infra-red based temperature sensor for undertaking screening of personnel. Navy's move is expected to reduce the load on the security sentries at the gate where many personnel are screened. 

An average influx of around 20,000 personnel

The 285-year-old Naval Dockyard (ND) of Western Naval Command (WNC) has an average influx of around 20,000 personnel entering its premises every day. In view of COVID-19, initial screening of these personnel entering the dockyard was essential to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within the yard and the Western Fleet. The most preliminary method to screen a probable patient is to check for body temperature by a non-contact means, the Navy said.

Temperature sensor with accuracy of 0.02 deg Celsius

The Navy in an official statement said that the instrument has been manufactured under Rs. 1000 through-in-house resources, which is a fraction of the cost of the Temperature Guns in the market. It added the dockyard has the capability to scale up production of these if required towards which sourcing of the components is in progress.

The Navy said that the decision to develop a sensor was made because of the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak, the non-contact thermometers or temperature guns have become scarce in the market and are being sold at a very high cost. And to overcome the scarcity and requirement of large numbers, the Naval Dockyard has designed and developed its own handheld IR based temperature sensor with accuracy of 0.02 deg Celsius.

The non-contact thermometer has a Infrared sensor and an LED display integrated with a microcontroller which runs on a 9V battery. 

Indian Navy's Naval Dockyard rises to the occasion

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The personnel from the Naval Dockyard at Vishakhapatnam have succeeded in innovating a device with which one Oxygen cylinder can be used for multiple patients. A typical Oxygen providing facility at hospitals feeds only one patient. The Navy on Monday said, “Personnel have designed an innovative ‘Portable Multi-feed Oxygen Manifold (MOM)’ using a 6-way radial header fitted to a single cylinder.

"This innovation would enable one Oxygen Bottle to supply six patients concurrently thus enabling critical care management to a larger number of COVID patients with the existing limited resources," added the Navy.

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