UPON ITS PREMIERE, a custom-built mobile blood-donation electric bus won an award at the International Invention and Innovation Show INTARG 2018, in Poland – the first of two vehicles of its type commissioned by the Regional Blood Donation Centre (RCKiK) in Katowice, it’s reported.
As the world’s first mobile blood donation centre in an emission-free electric bus – the Solaris Urbino 8.9 LE electric – officially received the landmark award at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Regional Blood Donation and Hemotherapy Centre, in Katowice, it’s stated. The vehicle was built on the basis of a Solaris Urbino 8.9 LE electric -the model that started a series of eco-friendly, electric vehicles made by the Bolechowo-based bus maker.
The Solaris Urbino 8.9 LE electric resembles a standard bus from the outside, but it has been adjusted to the needs of blood donation and storage. In line with the requests of RCKiK, the manufacturer equipped the bus with two specialist mobile blood donor lounges, a doctor’s office, a reception area, as well as a small catering area, it’s reported.
The vehicles are also fitted with, among other things, shutters and external awnings, as well as LED-technology lighting. Thanks its air-conditioned passenger compartment, Wi-Fi access and USB ports installed near the lounges, anyone willing to give blood will be able to donate in a clean, quiet and comfortable setting.
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EMISSIONS FREE
The electric bloodmobile was designed and built in a way that allows its use during blood-donation campaigns without interruption in city centres, shopping malls, sports halls – that is, in venues where conventional vehicles with a normal combustion engine used for blood donation – cannot. Boasting an electric drive of 160kW and batteries with a capacity of 160kWh, the bus ensures a fully emission-free operation mode even with regard to heating or air-conditioning, as well as when all devices on-board are operating, it’s claimed.
The sub-9m-long Solaris Urbino electric meets all standards and regulations applicable for blood donation centres, but it also enables the remote transmission of data to the Blood Bank computer system, it’s reported. That, among many other features, convinced the jury to award the vehicle makers with the prize at INTARG, 2018.
Most notably, the makers have also filed the design of the electric ambulance for blood donation with the Patent Office and the application is being considered now, the company states.
Co-operation between Solaris and the Regional Blood Donation and Hemotherapy Centre in Katowice started a long time ago, having lasted for more than 20 years. The first special purpose vehicle made in Bolechowo – a mobile station for blood collection based on a coach – rolled out of the factory in 1996, it’s stated.
ABOUT INTARG
The International Invention and Innovation Show INTARG is a tool of market-oriented promotion of innovative products, technologies and services with Technology Readiness Level (TRL) between 4 and 9, as well as innovations that already entered the market and commercialisation of which already begun, according to organisers.
The Exhibition functions also as a platform of direct contact and meetings among representatives of science, innovative enterprises, industry and business surrounding and entities supporting and financing scientific research and development.