American Dryer unveils new product with Cold Plasma Clean technology

Nov 6 2013

American Dryer recently unveiled a new product that incorporates cold plasma, a natural occurring phenomenon, into its market-leading hand dryers.

The company worked to perfect its new, patent-pending Cold Plasma Clean™ (CPC) technology for several years, and with its release, cold plasma-enabled, warm-air dryers will advance cleanliness in restrooms and markets such as healthcare, schools and food processing.

"Cold Plasma Clean technology was developed by our engineering team to create the most hygienic hand drying method possible," American Dryer Vice President of Sales and Technology Michael Robert said. "CPC kills germs on and around your hands naturally, without chemicals. HEPA filters, the solution used by some manufacturers, may trap microbes, but can't eliminate them, nor do the filters clean the air surrounding the hands the way CPC does."

This is an important advancement for hand hygiene. HEPA filtration simply traps germs inside the dryer, but by incorporating warm-air CPC, American Dryer's latest models actually kill germs on the surfaces of hands and in the surrounding air. In contrast, HEPA neither sanitizes hands nor kills germs. "CPC creates a purifying bubble of air, which surrounds the hands without the creation of harmful ozone," American Dryer President Daniel Rabahy added. "This is a true evolution in hand dryer technology because of its comprehensive hygienic benefits."

Cold plasma, or bipolar ionization, is nature's way of cleaning the air and killing germs. The Cold Plasma Generator, available only inside select American Dryer eXtremeAir® models, uses steady-state positive and negative discharge points to split water molecules in the air into oppositely charged hydrogen and oxygen ions. These ions then break down gases to harmless compounds commonly found in the atmosphere.

CPC technology is also proven to kill harmful and microscopic pathogens including E.Coli, C. Diff, Staph, MRSA, and TB. Testing has been done independently by EMSL Labs and Underwriters Laboratory (UL), passing both the UL867 and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards.

Additionally, CPC technology is a solid-state, maintenance-free solution. There are no expensive filters, chemicals or labor, and as with all American Dryer hand dryers, eXtremeAir CPC are compact and come equipped with universal voltage and adjustable sound and speed.