Award-winning solution for tackling workplace dust

Safera’s solution was chosen as the winner in Mirka’s innovation challenge for solving the issues with workplace dust.

Finnish surface finishing specialist Mirka is working to develop new innovations in workplace air quality. Sanding produces a lot of workplace dust, which is a serious occupational hazard.

Workplace dust is an important workplace hazard

Over the years, Mirka has developed various dust removal technologies to make workplaces safer. Additionally, dust removal has a big impact on how well finishing and sanding processes turn out.

The Innovation Challenge encouraged participants to offer their ideas for cutting-edge dust measurement technology that would work with Mirka systems.

The challenge was to either measure dust particles in the air, or to measure dust particles using a mechanism built into Mirka tools.

Safera was chosen as the winner in the first case. Safera’s compact and compelling idea, quick time to market, and need for only a few adjustments helped the solution stand out among the numerous and high quality submissions.

The solution: A truly one-of-a-kind sensor

Safera has a long history of developing custom-made sensor technology for harsh environments.

Most of the challenges faced by Mirka with other commercially available sensors were familiar to Safera too: especially high sensitivity fine particle sensors are easily over-polluted and the accuracy is compromised quickly in everyday use.

Safera had developed a patented fine particle sensor for environments where normally the PM2.5 level is well below WHO’s recommendation (24h average 15 μg/m³), but will occasionally be greatly exceeded and thus clogging the traditional sensors.

Safera’s sensor is the only solution optimized for relatively low concentrations of particulate matter to reliably tell if the PM2.5 level is below the target level or not.

Opening up the opportunity to create pioneering product innovations

The Innovation Challenge was a success for Mirka as well, since it opens a whole new avenue for product innovation.

Good air quality and health is an increasingly critical focus area for Mirka, and the solution paves the way for the development of ever more effective dust extraction techniques.

“The Innovation Challenge suited our spirit well,” comments Samuli Lintonen, R&D Director at Safera. “Air quality monitoring is a very important matter currently, and the project helped us visualize products that are missing from professional use at the moment. We believe that the challenge can result in products with great potential on the market.”
Samuli Lintonen
Samuli Lintonen
R&D Director, Safera

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