Give the germs no chance

For years, bacteria with high resistance to common antibiotic therapies have been spreading primarily in hospitals. These infections are becoming a serious problem not only in healthcare but also in nursing and care homes, kindergartens and schools, as well as food producers – followed by agricultural operations with intensive livestock farming, which are among the risk areas.

Part of the solution to this problem involves surfaces that people come into contact with – such as handles, buttons, switches, plugs, switches, work surfaces, keyboards, and even touch screens. Here, bacteria, fungi, and viruses can settle, form a biofilm that promotes growth, and ultimately jump to the next users. Therefore, it is essential to reliably interrupt these essentially simple transmission pathways. The cleaner the surfaces are, the lower the risk of infection.

Frequent cleaning and disinfecting are one solution, but they are prone to errors and can have problematic gaps. Much more effective and reliable are surfaces with antimicrobial effects. These actively deactivate the microbes themselves and prevent their transmission – and do so over long periods of time.

Ganter has addressed this socially highly relevant topic years ago, equipping a whole range of norm elements with antibacterial properties and consolidating them into the product family Sanline. The different handling elements – buttons, clamp levers, toggle handles, and wing nuts – utilize two different mechanisms of action. Plastics are equipped with special additives containing silver ions, while metal parts are coated with powder coatings based on zinc molybdate.

Both principles destroy the cell walls of microorganisms and thereby kill them. Contact with such activated surfaces is absolutely safe for humans. Particularly interesting is zinc molybdate, which is available as an additive. With the help of humidity, a layer of acid forms on the surfaces – similar to human skin – with a pH value of about 4.5. The existing acid protons penetrate the cell membrane of the microbe and destroy it quickly.

Both principles also work over long periods despite frequent cleaning. Important: They do not replace cleaning or disinfection but sustainably support their effectiveness.