3D printed door handle developed in effort to reduce spread of Coronavirus | Hacker News Reader

3D printed door handle developed in effort to reduce spread of Coronavirus

designworldonline.com

31 pointsrajnathani31 comments

IIRC, I read somewhere that brass/copper doorknobs naturally disinfect themselves. If that's true, I really with they were more common.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_properties_of_co...

I wonder if you could just spray paint them with metal particles.

From what I've seen, yes that should work. It'll wear off much faster than either a solid metal piece or electroplating simply because it'll be a thinner coat but it would otherwise work.

Most brass doorknobs are coated in lacquer or a polymer.

It appears that COVID-19 lasts for about 4 hours on copper. So better than other surfaces, but it does still live for a while

source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200317-covid-19-how-lon...

I hope this becomes part of the new-normal once this pandemic is over. The current design of door handles, especially in the public bathrooms defeats the purpose of hand washing altogether.

There's step n pull which I've seen in bathrooms already: https://www.stepnpull.com/

So, I have pretty strong legs, good dexterity with my feet, and I usually wear shoes with good traction on the bottom. I have never once been able to use these damn things.

You might as well be standing on a piece of metal attached to the bottom of the door.

Oh, wait — that’s EXACTLY what you’re doing!

I agree. Most bathrooms could at least be built with door opening from the inside out, like my work does, which makes it really easy to just push it open with a shoe.

The other option is what I've seen at some Home Depots & Hospitals - button for a door opening, which is for physically disabled people primarily but also great for opening the door then washing hands.

Oh that’s disappointing. I thought it would be a carry on door knob you could put into your pocket and plug into doors like a usb charger. I think this kind of design would work better.

Or perhaps some tongs with two melon ballers on the ends so you can grab round door knobs?

if you have a printer you can do this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4192643

On the topic of handles being disease vectors, can someone explain to me the design of the American cross-walk button which is so small it requires a finger press? It's also shielded by plastic around the edges so you can't get to it with a more blunt object, such as your elbow.

> It's also shielded by plastic around the edges so you can't get to it with a more blunt object, such as your elbow.

My guess is the idea is to protect the relatively fragile button against blunt impacts, like vandals or bicycle crashes.

True story in college I used to play arcade games down in the basement of the student union. I discovered that by not touching my nose or face while playing and then washing my hands afterwards meant I stopped getting colds.

I totally think that non-contact buttons and doors would help a lot to reduce the spread of colds and flu.

If they were actually functional, that would be a bigger problem.

Fun fact: some are functional. The only way to know for sure is to not press the button and watch an entire light cycle go by without an opportunity to cross.

That particular one is functional. If you don't press it, only the walk single on the parallel side of the intersection will activate.

Yeah, but it touches the part of the shirt sleave where people wipe their noses...

When I was in school I remember hearing about this technology and how it was an exciting new possibility for sterile medical surfaces.

https://www.livescience.com/47870-shark-skin-hospital-superb...

Did anything ever come.of this? It seems like this is something that could be 3d printed.

It doesn't look like it helps much...

And at a cost of €40 per pair it's a no-no. I think they will gain more from the free promo they will get from media/clicks than actual sells of the specific handle.

> And at a cost of €40 per pair it's a no-no

What the...

It probably cost less than a dollar to print these.

EDIT: Yep. Just added one to the slicer. $1 if you are paying about $25 per filament, which is on the expensive side. It would cost me about half as much.

Yeah, that type of handle is already a lever that you can use with your forearm. The motion is a little awkward, but it's free.

But if the door opens towards you, it's really hard to pull on the handle with your forearm and this would provide something to hook your arm around for leverage.

Hence the awkward part. It's not impossible.

seems over-engineered considering you could just use your sleeve (but of course you can't make money off of that idea).

that's what I have been doing for years in any public toilet anyway. the odd time I don't have long sleeves I just use the end of my shirt. if the handle was too high for that I would just put my fingers through without touching and use my palm so at least the germs would be less likely to end up on my finger tips.

the other problem with this design is that someone could just grab onto it to open the door instead of using the handle, and then you are pretty much back to square one

that's just my 2 cents anyway. I'm no expert on germs

it is completely useless! waste of resources and energy! I can bet the man who took the decision of manufacturing it has nothing to do with engineering! and pay 40 EURs on that! WTF?! are we stupid?

This is all well and good but people are transmitting the virus in their breath and by being around other people so while this might help it's a bit like pissing into the wind I feel.

Less germs, more broken arms.

Okay now make ones which fits over doorknobs.

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