| dc.description.abstract | Medical waste processors are large pieces of machinery which sterilize medical waste so that it may then be disposed of as non-hazardous waste. The primary components include grinders, conveyors, autoclave, steam generation, housing and frame. Recently, tests on medical waste have proven that static (non-rotating) autoclaves do not effectively disinfect hazardous materials. Although alternatives to the autoclave method of sterilizing waste exist, the autoclave has shown to be the most effective and environmentally friendly method. The solution to the unreliable static autoclave is a rotating autoclave, which has been developed by Bio-Shield, an up and coming company which hopes to redefine the medical waste sterilization market. Though they once operated a large format mobile medical waste grinding system, this quickly proved to not be financially viable. Responding to an industry need, the new goal of Bio-Shield is to place a fractional size system inside hospitals. By decreasing the scale of these processors to one-third of the developed load input, units will be able to be rented by hospitals and transported from one place to another to allow for extremely convenient methods of converting biomedical hazard into dumpster waste. Bio-Shield has agreed to pay for the final design of this unit and, once completed, it will serve to revolutionize the industry and create a brand new business in Oklahoma. The senior design team's goal was to evaluate the concept developed by Bio-Shield and identify strengths and weakness to implement as many improvements as possible. | |
