German City Protects Itself from Future Pandemics with Self-Sanitising Surfaces.
12 Month Surface Disinfectant “Si-Quat” deployed to protect public busses and trains in Görlitz, Germany, under the “Kiel Protect” program with transportation partner Franz Kiel GmbH.
Franz Kiel GmbH, using AFFIX Labs long-acting antimicrobial surface coating Si-Quat, has launched a project in the German city of Görlitz, to treat all of the cities public busses and trains. Through Kiels “Kiel Protect” service, which uses Si-Quat to treat various surface types in public transport settings, the project launched in full at the beginning of October 2021 after a 6 month trial phase. The project is designed to bolster the German cities efforts to protect it’s population from contagious diseases by stopping harmful bacteria and viruses from contaminating regularly touched surfaces.
The coating, developed by Finland based AFFIX Labs, has already been embraced by Franz Kiel in multiple public transport settings, including integration into seat fabrics and treating interior surfaces. Using molecular chains of a highly effective antimicrobial ingredient, Si-Quat makes a strong and durable bond to surfaces meaning a single coat can last for months at a time. After application, bacteria and viruses, which naturally have a negative charge, are attracted to positively charged nitrogen in the coating. At the point of contact, thousands of long molecular spikes pierce the cell membranes and viral envelopes of harmful microbes, killing them within minutes, while the protective Si-Quat layer stays intact and ready to fight of more germs as they come into contact with it.
This exciting project, under the already well established “Kiel Protect” program, shows the potential for pro-active local governments to take actions to protect passengers using vital local transportation infrastructure, and help minimise the impact from future outbreaks of highly contagious diseases such as Covid-19, common colds, and other diseases that have the potential to spread via high-contact touch points across transportation networks.
“At the moment, passenger recovery is the focus of our efforts. We want to give our passengers the feeling that even in the cold season, local public transport is not a place from which there is an increased risk of infection, ”says Sven Sellig, Managing Director of GVB (Görlitz Transport Services). "All over Germany, transportation companies are faced with the same problem of regaining the passengers' trust that has been lost in the pandemic," adds Hans-Jürgen Pfeiffer, Managing Director of ZVON (a regional transport association) "reliable and long-lasting surface disinfection plays a significant key role in passenger recovery".
As an odourless, safe to touch coating that has been lab tested to be effective against viruses and bacteria even after 5,000 touches, Si-Quat is easy to integrate seamlessly and with minimal interference to operation for infrastructures, buildings, vehicles and more.