Digi-Key Hacks UV Into Conveyor Line To Protect Warehouse Staff

No doubt that every hacker has already heard of Digi-Key, the electronic component distributor that makes it just as possible to order one of something as it is to order a thousand of it. As an essential business, Digi-Key has been open during the duration of the lockdown since they support critical manufacturing services for virtually every industry on the planet including the medical industry.

Ensuring their workforce stays healthy is key to remaining open and as part of their efforts they hacked together a nice addition to their sanitation regime. They use around 8,000 plastic totes to transport components around the distribution center and devised a way to sanitize tote coming in from the receiving area using a UV light tunnel. From their sanitation plan we can see this is in addition to the fogging system (likely a vaporized hydrogen peroxide system) used to regularly sanitize the totes passing throughout the warehouse.

They developed a UV light tunnel that wraps around the conveyor rollers. The design includes a sensor and a timer to control when and how long the UV lights are on. The totes are a frequent touch point for employees, and running incoming shipments through the UV light tunnel helps decrease the chance of exposure.

Thinking of using UV as a sanitation tool? Make sure you do your research on the wavelengths you need and vet the source of critical components. [Voja] ran into UV lamps that were anything but germicidal.

21 thoughts on “Digi-Key Hacks UV Into Conveyor Line To Protect Warehouse Staff

      1. The new overlords who not be from this dimension, because UV-C destroys all DNA. Breaks the bonds that hold the strands together. All living things of this dimension have DNA. No DNA, not living.

        I would sacrifice a plastic bin to save a life any day. It’s going to a lot of UV to crack thick bins. More than likely the bins will degrade on the outside faster. UV won’t shorten the service life by that much.

          1. can’t tell if serious but: carbon-black used as a pigment in plastics due to it being a strong inhibitor to UV damage. UV-resistant plastic compositions will almost always be black for this reason

  1. Since when did taking precautions to help prevent the spread of a pandemic become political? What’s “leftist” about wanting to protect people?

    I know you’re just a troll, but I still have to say this.

      1. I was talking with a neighbor a couple of weeks ago, and judging from his stash (mostly audio equip and stage lighting, as well as antique radios and old cars). I told him that between the 2 of us, we could go quite a ways toward jump starting civilization after the Zombie Apocalypse.

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