Hospitalar, the leading healthcare trade show in Latin America, will be held in São Paulo from May 17 to 20, 2022. For this edition, Business France accompanies 13 companies with the objective of promoting the most innovative companies in the healthcare sector. We went to meet the founders of Vital Technics and MetalSkin.
MetalSkin, a company based in the Hérault region of France, has converted to the self-decontamination of surfaces by applying a copper-based alloy. Interest in its process has been boosted by the Covid health crisis.
Two new fire department vehicles have been painted with copper to limit contamination.
Two new rescue and victim assistance vehicles were delivered to the Issoudun and Châteauroux fire departments’ rescue centers last week. These ambulances, which are used on many interventions, have a new equipment: an antimicrobial paint, based on copper.
“We’ve been working with the Indre fire brigade for a little over two years now,” explains Stéphane Penari, director of the Metal Skin company, which has developed this principle of paint (and now of adhesive coating) in which copper is integrated. “It has the ability to kill yeast and bacteria. This has been known for a long time, hence the copper basins for cooking.”
Two hours for a complete disinfection of a vehicle
However, the ambulances are not equipped with “copper” uprights, but with an anthracite paint. “It is a specific alloy”. According to the director of MetalSkin, this will help to “slow down” the spread of contamination. “We often use the metaphor of car brakes: the invention of ABS didn’t improve the brakes, but it did help us keep control. Now we have better control over the risk of contamination.”
An equipment, while the epidemic of Covid-19 continues, which has its use in the emergency practiced every day by firefighters. “A complete vehicle disinfection is two hours. We can’t always do it every time we come back from an intervention”, explains Major Paul Malassigné, head of the logistics group of the Indre departmental fire and rescue service.
The vehicles thus equipped have an additional reinforcement to limit propagation: tests show that bacteria or microbes are destroyed by copper ions in two hours, whereas they persist for several hours on other metals, such as stainless steel.
Some of the interior equipment of the ambulance, the most used to climb in or to stabilize, were therefore treated with this specific paint, in an approved center of the Metal Skin brand, in the Bordeaux region.
“These first two ambulances were lightly equipped with it to see if it lasts over time with the cleaning and disinfection protocols.” The amount of copper used is minimal. “We use a protection of about 150 microns thick, which we make with recycled copper,” explains Stéphane Penari. His process, which has been registered and is used by certified dealers, is also being used in some health care institutions.
14/12/2021 – At Roissy Charles Gaulle airport, an experiment was conducted in November 2021 by the companies UUDS Aero, Transdev and Metalskin Technologies in a bus.
This experiment aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the combination of the use of MetalSkin® biocidal coating on contact points and periodic disinfection.
According to the results announced, the conclusions of this experiment are extremely positive and conclusive: the surfaces remained very slightly contaminated throughout the duration of the study.
This seems to provide public transport with an innovative solution to effectively and permanently protect the users who use it daily. In this sense, it is a real revolution in transport hygiene.
The microbial loads measured during 21 days on the contact points equipped with MetalSkin® remained constantly below the significance threshold (50), and often equal to zero.
In other words, between two disinfections (every three days), the elements equipped with MetalSkin® presented an excellent level of hygiene never reached over such a period of time.
Antimicrobial film
The French company MetalSkin Technologies has developed MetalSkin, an antimicrobial adhesive film combining polymers and an alloy with 92% copper. This film is to be applied on surfaces in contact with travelers to limit sanitary risks.
The application of this film, combined with periodic disinfection of the bars, reduces the microbial load on these surfaces.
Handrails with MetalSkin biocide coating in a Transdev Solaris bus at Roissy CDG (photo: MetalSkin).
This product was tested in October 2021 on the stainless steel bars of a Solaris bus of Transdev at Roissy CDG.
An experiment conducted on the Roissy airport shuttle buses by UUDS Aero, Transdev and MetalSkin Technologies has demonstrated the effectiveness of the MetalSkin biocide coating on contact points such as handrails and other on-board equipment and coatings. During 21 days, the microbial loads remained at levels below the significance level of 50 and often equal to 0. Nine contact surfaces were equipped with MetalSkin, with disinfection occurring every 3 days. Measurements were taken periodically for 21 days. According to UUDS Aero and Transdev, “between 2 disinfections, the equipped elements presented an excellent level of hygiene never reached over such a period of time”.
When the MS-Sticker® technology was highlighted on the TF1 news channel (the first French television channel).
Buses, operated by Transdev, equipped with our bactericidal and virucidal adhesive film to protect users at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport.
As part of its commitment to its senior tenants, Hérault Logement is experimenting, starting this July 2021, with a self-decontaminating device, MS-Sticker®, in the common areas of its residences.
Thanks to an innovative process developed in Balaruc, Hérault Logement protects its senior tenants from bacteria and viruses, including that of Covid-19, by installing on the contact points of the common areas, the coating designed by the company MetalSkin Technologies.
Bactericidal and virucidal surfaces
Door and gate handles, call buttons and elevator handrails will thus be under high sanitary protection. This innovative process, tested in accordance with the NF S90-700 standard, makes it possible to evaluate the bactericidal action of a surface under real environmental conditions. It is currently being tested at the Les Albizzias residence in Montpellier. It is expected to be extended to all the residences with more than 20 units that have been awarded the Habitat Senior Services label by the social landlord, i.e. 21 residences for 809 units.
A multi-award winning concept
The Metalskin Technologies coating has a bactericidal action of 99% in minutes on bacteria, and 99.97% in 1 hour. The virucidal action also observed by the CNRS allows a 68% inhibition of the virulence of SarsCov-2 in 1 hour and 99.5% between 2 and 4 hours. This concept was awarded the Innovation Trophy at Hospital Expo 2014, and has since been developed by the Balaruc-based company, Metalskin Technologies. It also received the Best VSE Award in 2017 and the Trophée Or Normes Afnor 2019.
It’s a known fact that contact surfaces such as light switches and stair railings are breeding grounds for germs and viruses. With MS-Sticker ® flexible adhesives from MetalSkin Technologies, all these surfaces can become self-decontaminating and stay that way.
