“Wishing for a day when it will no longer be used” Thoughts in a small black box July 20, 18:37
"I hope the day will come when it will no longer be used."
With that in mind, a small and medium-sized company in Osaka made a seemingly ordinary Styrofoam box.
This box is a collection of company technologies.
What on earth was it made for?
(Osaka base broadcasting station reporter Gentoku Sozo)
Name it "Sakai-BOX"
I met in February this year.
The mayor of Sakai City, Osaka, picked up a box and introduced it to us in front of the press conference.
The name is "Sakai-BOX".
It's a styrofoam box that looks like a normal styrofoam box, with a name that doesn't have a twist like Osaka, a sacred place for laughter.
"It's just a box ..." That was my first honest impression.
According to the mayor, this box was developed by Sakai City in collaboration with a company in Osaka City to carry a vaccine for the new coronavirus.
Other reporters who attended the conference asked a series of harsh questions such as "Can I really carry the vaccine?" "Is temperature control okay?" "Why Sakai-BOX?"
The size is 22 cm in length, 33 cm in width, and 19 cm in height.
It weighs about 400 grams and is extremely compact.
You can hold it with one hand.
What I was interested in was that the whole thing was black.
I will find out later that one of the secrets was hidden in this color.
I was having trouble subdividing vaccine delivery
The time goes back about two months from the press conference, last December.
Municipalities nationwide have been rushing to consider how to receive the new coronavirus vaccine supplied by the government and actually carry it to the inoculation site, given limited information.
Sakai City, the second largest city in Osaka with a population of about 800,000, is no exception, and we have begun preparations to set up a team specializing in vaccination.
According to Sakai City, the national vaccination policy at that time was only mass vaccination, in which citizens were gathered in large hospitals and large facilities to efficiently vaccinate.
However, Sakai City, which has a large population and decided that inoculation alone would not proceed, is independently considering whether it is possible to utilize medical institutions such as clinics, which are more than 300 in the city, as inoculation sites. Was there.
However, the major issue at that time was how to deliver the vaccine to more than 300 medical institutions.
Pfizer vaccines must be stored in the ultra-low temperature freezer "Deep Freezer" at around minus 75 degrees Celsius.
Vaccines are transported from there to inoculation sites such as hospitals, which also require strict temperature control.
However, at that time, it was not clear what to put in and how to carry it.
The person in charge of the city had begun to make inquiries to companies that manufacture cooler boxes, but in the dark, the year-end holidays continued.
The person in charge received a phone call.
"Styrofoam" developed by small and medium-sized enterprises in Osaka
The owner of the phone was Daisuke Kondo, the president of a Styrofoam manufacturer in Osaka.
Mr. Kondo's company was founded in 1957.
We have been making various products for more than half a century.
While listening to the daily reports of Corona, I learned that Sakai City was looking for a container for transporting vaccines, so I immediately called Sakai City.
"Isn't Styrofoam, which is strong against shocks and vibrations and can control the temperature, useful for delivering vaccines?"
He said he thought that his manufacturing technology could be useful for coronavirus.
For the city, it was a ship to cross.
Development that seemed easy, but the challenges are one after another
A meeting with Sakai City was held early in the new year.
The city's request is "a box that can carry up to 25 vaccine containers and is easy to carry."
Initially, the government decided to aim for completion by the end of March, which was the start time for inoculation of the elderly.
President Kondo gathered about 10 experienced employees and started development immediately.
At first, Mr. Kondo said that he thought that it would be easy to make, but he hit the wall early.
It was an overwhelming lack of information.
A foreign vaccine that no one has hit or seen the real thing.
At that time, there was no way to know exactly what the shape of a container called a vial would look like.
Mr. Kondo and his colleagues also read overseas materials to collect information.
By the time I found the description of the size of the container in the materials of the US FDA = Food and Drug Administration, it was already February.
The strict conditions for delivery also stood in front of Mr. Kondo and others.
Vaccines stored in the ultra-low temperature freezer "Deep Freezer" must be kept refrigerated at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius when transported from the municipality to individual inoculation sites.
Assuming midsummer, under what conditions can the specified temperature be maintained for a long time while the outside temperature is 35 degrees Celsius?
We repeatedly adjusted the thickness of the box and the amount of ice pack to put inside.
I also needed to block the light.
It turned out that the white Styrofoam box, which had been repeatedly prototyped until then, could not completely block the light.
Clear conditions with special raw materials
In order to clear the harsh conditions, we arrived at a special black raw material.
By using this special raw material, which is a corporate secret, we were able to protect the interior from light almost completely.
In addition, the heat insulation has been improved, and it is now possible to keep the temperature below 8 degrees for more than half a day with just an ordinary ice pack.
A protrusion was added to the hole for the vaccine.
Although it is a protrusion of only about 1 mm, it acts as a cushion and prevents the vaccine from shaking significantly due to vibration during delivery or falling out of the hole.
The box was filled with the technologies and ideas accumulated in the city of manufacturing, and the spirit of the craftsmen to make and show things that exceed the needs of customers.
Sakai-BOX spread all over the country
The completed box can carry a minimum of 1 vaccine and a maximum of 25 vaccines.
The boxes can also be collected and reused.
In Sakai City, when there are many cases, the contractor packs the vaccines from the "Deep Freezer" into boxes and delivers them to about 400 vaccination sites such as hospitals and nursing homes twice a week.
At the inoculation site, the box that was handed over last time is collected in a delivery style, and currently 2000 "Sakai-BOX" are active in the city.
Easy to use because it can be transported from a single vaccine.
Its reputation will spread beyond Sakai City as individual vaccinations spread.
So far, we have received orders from about 150 local governments nationwide, including Hokkaido and Fukuoka Prefecture, and have shipped about 15,000 units.
Each of the Sakai-BOXes delivered to each location is a small but large force that now fights against the new Corona.
Hope the day when the product will not be used
The price of "Sakai-BOX" is 1320 yen each.
I was wondering if it was quite profitable, but President Kondo shook his head, saying that there was almost no profit considering the manufacturing of molds for making boxes and labor costs.
However, it was not a bitter face.
Why continue manufacturing?
I was shocked by President Kondo's surprising answer.
The word he said was, "The real wish is that the day will come when this box will no longer be needed."
President Kondo continued.
"In order to end the corona wreck, we have been working on the development with the supporting role of a shipping box, hoping to contribute to vaccination. That is why we can get a sense of accomplishment only on the day when it is no longer used. I want the day to come soon. "
The vaccine you hit.
Maybe it was carried in Sakai-BOX.
Reporter of Osaka Broadcasting Station
Gentoku Gentoku
Joined in 2015
After working at the Kochi Station, he
was in charge of interviewing local governments in the southern part of Osaka Prefecture.