By Kristy Dorsey
A Scottish engineer who has developed a door handle that kills germs within seconds is preparing to launch the product into the corporate and higher education market.
Ian Graham, who set up Glasgow-based Glana in 2017, has developed the Axiene handle to cut down on the spread of pathogens including Covid, E-Coli and Staph-A in multi-occupancy facilities such as offices, care homes, offices and universities. Using a system where the touch surface on the handle is continually treated, Mr Graham said trials have shown that it kills more than 99.9 per cent of bacteria and viruses.
“When someone touches the Axiene handle, they’re touching a continually disinfected and safer surface as Axiene kills any bugs within seconds and keeps the handle protected for both you and the next person,” he said. “This means that you’re not transmitting your bugs or picking up bugs from the person before you, which helps prevent infection spread.”
READ MORE: Glasgow chemistry technology firm wins recognition in India
With statistics having shown that touching one door handle is the equivalent of 10,000 handshakes, Mr Graham hopes to promote Axiene as a way to help facilities safely re-open following pandemic restrictions. During a trail at East Kilbride’s Hairmyres Hospital in 2017, tests uncovered less than 10 cultures on the Axiene handle versus more than 18,000 on a standard handle in an area of equivalent traffic.
A trained mechanical engineer, Mr Graham began his development as a hobby project several years ago out of “engineering curiosity”. The arrival of the Covid pandemic brought the development of the business into sharper focus.
With backing from Shancastle Investments and Strathclyde University, Glana has commissioned production of an initial run of 2,000 Axiene handles.
“We are looking forward to working with business and institutions to help fight infections and help everyone fell more confident about returning to normal living,” he added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel