Solidarity and innovation through hand sanitiser

03/04/2020

A lot has happened in the past seven days, including the production of 192 five litre containers of hand sanitiser by our team at Road Science. This amazing creation will initially supply our Spotless teams who are delivering essential services within hospitals and the healthcare industry

Darcy Rogers, Technical Development Manager for Road Science gives us the background on how this initiative came about and what is next for production.

How was this possible?
Recognising the shortfall available due to the COVID-19 crisis, our technical development team got to work repurposing their manufacturing plants for bulk production of hand sanitiser.

An existing supplier, who normally produces our epoxy and resin-based products, were already setup to handle flammable raw materials. This meant they were able to get straight to work producing hand sanitiser in bulk, using their equipment.

How exactly do you produce hand sanitiser?
Through a development partner were able to secure an allocation of ethanol from a whey (milk) factory and have been able to fast track the manufacture. This is huge for us as it is domestically sourced, meaning we won't be blocked by other countries wanting to secure supply for their own people. The formula is made to World Health Organisation standards, with our first batch made last week."

So what is next for Road Science's new venture?
The first production run supplied 192 5L containers of hand sanitiser, but over the next few days this will increase to a massive 600 5L bottles per week and will be supplied to all teams who are working in essential services.

The team are now carrying out weekly production runs but it is extremely important those who require it give us good forecasts, as one of the key raw materials is in high demand. The product is only available to those working in essential services and we need to provide evidence to the Ministry of Health to get our allocation of key raw materials every week.

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Through times of crisis, it is great to see the business coming together and supporting each other in any way they can. The quick response from our Road Science team meant Spotless remained well supplied and can continue delivering their services across the industries they work.

A special mention goes to David Alexander, R&D Projects Manager who has been instrumental in working across several business units within Downer to get this off the ground.