NDSU Alum’s Business Helps Healthcare Workers Disinfect N95 Masks

Lumacept Inc is a coatings technology company that uses UVC-light to decontaminate surfaces.

FARGO, N.D. – Face masks should only be worn once and then thrown away according to the CDC, but because of the nationwide shortage of PPE equipment, that is not an option for many hospitals.

That is why many are looking into decontamination to reuse them.

“The CDC came out with recommendations for three types of technologies that they consider to be promising. Ultraviolet germicidal light is one of them, vaporous hydrogen peroxide is another, and certain application steamed heat is the third,” says Todd Pringle, the President of Lumacept Inc.

Lumacept Inc is a coatings technology company that uses UVC-light to decontaminate surfaces.

“I offered my time for free for any hospitals or groups that were trying to implement this,” he says.

Sanford Health’s Broadway Medical Center in Fargo is one of the hospitals he has been in talks with to create this decontamination room.

“The contaminated masks are opened and they’re carefully hung and they’re hung in racks. And those racks are then put into a room and all around the room are lamps. And the lamps look very similar to tubular fluorescent lamps. The masks bathe in that ultraviolet, that deep ultraviolet light, it’s called UVC,” Pringle says.

Having the right amount of light will determine the time the decontamination process will take.

“If you have suitable lighting, and you have a good reflective space, 5 to 10 minutes is the most common range,” he says.

Pringle emphasizes this is a worst case scenario situation.

“The hope is certainly that this technology does not have to be used for masks,” Pringle adds.