Columns- Significant interest in automatic baggage handling system
- NEM develops solar-powered steam generator
- Carriage construction company Koetsenbouw De Laat launches carts with anti-lock braking system
- Frank van Bunderen introduces a second generation of chimneys
- “Floor advertising needs to be durable”
- Cling climbing in offshore, petrochemical and maritime industries
- Profextru supplies sustainable composite sheet piling for waterways
- “We don’t innovate all day you know!”
- ‘Guaranteed smoke-free workplace’
- Students at Delft University of Technology develop cradle-to-cradle scooter
- LEDs are very convenient for an atrium
- ASCO Numatics produces solenoid shut-off with three-way valve
- Stork Prints Group obtains patent for new label printing process
- Avantium test unit for the analysis of constituents of crude oil
- The Lion Anchor: a foundation technique used worldwide
- Flister suppresses FM radio and CD player
- EnergyKeeper-PC eliminates standby power consumption
- A lick of paint is not innovative enough
- Cappuccino in an instant
- Less concrete and easier to place
- Whipped cream preservable outside the refrigerator
- Our speakers sound like instruments
- Customs assists in patent enforcement
- New National Patent Act: easier and cheaper patenting
- US gives primacy to the invention, Europe to the patent application
- Innovative Lely difies competition thanks to patents
- Broader patent protection thanks to timely advice
- The benefits of preliminary work
Columns
Air in Café ’t Zwaantje kept clean using at-source extractor fan
Thijs-Bert van der Meij is hoping that Café ’t Zwaantje in Beilen will be getting a fine for infringement of the ban on smoking. For in this pub the ‘smoke spot extractor’ he invented is hanging. “Then we’ll be able to initiate a test case. We’ve already been in touch with the solicitor of Café De Kachel in Groningen, which was cleared of infringing the smoking ban on appeal.”
Smoke-free workplace
Minister of Public Health Ab Klink’s law contains no obligation for catering managers without staff to put a ban on 
smoking into operation, which means that the fine imposed on De Kachel in a previous court case does not have to be paid. Café ’t Zwaantje does employ people, but Van der Meij’s extractor fan is hanging there. “The smoke spot extractor guarantees a smoke-free workplace. The air in the catering business in Beilen is cleaner than in spaces where there is no smoke spot extractor and nobody is smoking.” After air measurements in premises where the smoke spot extractor was running, RPS Advies, an agency that (among other things) carries out research into environmental pollutants, concluded that the concentration of particles of carbon monoxide, nicotine and aldehydes remain ‘well below the health and hygiene limits’.
No smoke, no pain
Van der Meij, who enjoys a cigarette or cigar at parties, came up with the idea when he was cooking at home once and the smoke alarm went off. Because of the ban on smoking in the catering industry, he focussed his attention on the extraction of tobacco fumes. According to the inventor, Managing Director of a small construction company in Schoonebeek, other ventilation systems do not work. ”The air has to be extracted at source. That way the smoke doesn’t get a chance to spread through the room. This is why the smoke spot extractor hangs above a table close to the heads of the smokers. The equipment can extract the smoke of a maximum of eight people, but other types are possible, such as above a bar. The extractor consists of a transparent sheet, a soft material, so that if someone bumps their head it won’t hurt.” According to Van der Meij, the equipment scarcely makes a sound and the air is freshened in a natural way.
RIVM
The smoke spot extractor isn’t just intended for the catering industry, stresses Van der Meij. “My invention is also a solution for private rooms in hospitals and care institutions where smoking is permitted. These are in fact dirty smoking dens. And what do you reckon about having one at home?” Van der Meij has invited the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) to pay a visit to Café ’t Zwaantje, but has not yet received a response.
August 2009 - De Technologiekrant
Marc van der Velden, M.Sc. (Trainee Patent Attorney)