Image: Pixabay
The IAC-Quepia Quality of Personal Protective Equipment in Agriculture program is installing a state-of-the-art Electrolux Wascator Fom 77 CLS machine at its headquarters with an investment of over R$ 200 thousand. This equipment will allow applying ISO 6330/2012 tests to raw materials used in the manufacture of agricultural protective clothing or agricultural PPE.
“Until recently, we sent fabric samples from Brazil to European laboratories to carry out washing standardized by ISO. When these materials were returned, aiming for qualification, through equivalence of results, compared to the washing previously carried out in the Quepia laboratory, ninety days would pass”, says researcher Hamilton Ramos, project coordinator. “Until the arrival of the new machine, we carried out these washes in basic washers, processes that took an average of 75 minutes. Now, operations take place in just twenty minutes. If we consider that PPE is washed thirty times before being tested, the approximate gain in sample preparation, the 'big bottleneck' of the method, will be 27 hours”, he adds.
{module Form RD}
The new equipment, adds Ramos, also significantly increases the capacity of the Quepia laboratory, especially in order to meet demands from Brazilian manufacturers of agricultural PPE. “In different practical circumstances at the field level, PPE constitutes a strategic barrier to protect workers applying agrochemicals. The good or bad quality of a product like this will define whether the professional working on a farm will be more or less safe”, explains Ramos.
Per: AGROLINK
{module Read More}
