Insulating mobile ICU facilities with Elastopir®

Best-in-class insulating material provides fire resistance and increased energy efficiency for mobile ICU units

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on medical support infrastructure in India, causing a shortage of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds.

Rinac India Limited (Rinac), India’s leading insulated panel and refrigeration system producer, has been working to solve this problem by designing and creating a new state-of-the-art mobile modular ICU that can be deployed quickly with short notice.

These facilities make use of BASF’s Elastopir®, a high-quality polyurethane rigid foam insulation solution, to reduce energy consumption and increase energy efficiency in the units.

The role of Elastopir

Traditionally used in the construction of refrigerated spaces for cold storage and animal farming, this marks the first time that Elastopir is being used for healthcare facilities.

In storage and freezer applications, Elastopir provides stable and consistent temperature and humidity levels to keep food fresher and prolong shelf-life. When used in livestock buildings, Elastopir helps farmers achieve lower heating bills, increase productivity, and improve animal health and working environments for the employees.

“We need the ICU facilities to be fully airtight and insulated to ensure the safety of our healthcare workers and minimize transmission of the virus,” said Soji Abraham, Senior Vice President Strategy at Rinac India. “Thanks to BASF‘s Elastopir, the wall panels made with this excellent insulating material help meet these requirements. With its extra high-temperature stability, the patients can recuperate comfortably with consistent indoor temperatures at 22 to 25 degrees Celsius. Most importantly, Elastopir’s superior fire performance helps enhance the protection of these facilities against fires.”

Elastopir’s energy conservation qualities come from its ability to effectively reduce air loss as well as solar gain, which is the increase in thermal energy of a space, object or structure as it absorbs incident solar radiation.

Elastopir is capable of providing the same insulation performance of traditional materials such as concrete with panels that are 50 to 100 percent thinner, allowing for more usable space and higher flexibility during construction.

A high-tech ICU solution

These advanced facilities will support India’s urgent need for more hospital beds during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each mobile medical facility unit has five beds and is entirely prefabricated, making it easy to configure the number of beds based on current needs.

The modules are fully integrated and self-contained, and simply need to be plugged in for operation. They can also be easily redeployed to different locations by using trailers.

Rinac packed a variety of useful features in each unit, including:

Medical grade air conditioning capabilities  

A special UV sanitisation system

Instant negative pressurisation at entry doors to eliminate cross contamination

Cameras for remote monitoring

Fully integrated bed head panels

BASF is also sponsoring a unit of the ICU facility as part of its social engagement.*

 

* Sponsorship of the ICU facility is by BASF South East Asia Pte. Ltd. and BASF East Asia Regional Headquarters Ltd.

 

For more information about Rinac’s ICU solution, click here