Brandon Main casually walked a few steps through one of his company’s Xtreme Opti-Clean Cubes during a demonstration.
Main, the CEO of Henderson-based Xtreme Cubes Corp., emerged from the small, modular structure—similar in size to a bus stop—less than a minute later.
He walked through what the company calls a “dry mist,” a hypochlorous acid solution that resembles a barely visible haze and leaves no sign of condensation on clothes or skin. The mostly odorless solution-spraying cubes represent the company’s foray into the burgeoning mass disinfectant market.
With concerns about limiting the spread of COVID-19 likely to linger through this year and into 2021, the Henderson company can’t make the cubes fast enough.
“The solution is non-toxic, eco-friendly and not harmful to the human body,” Main said. “You can get it on your skin or in your eyes. It’s actually used in eyedrop solutions to fight bacterial eye infections. Hypochlorous is actually made in your white blood cells.”
Main said the medical professionals, chemists and scientists who have worked on the dry mist distribution method—Xtreme Cubes has partnered with another local company called Proguardeum, and a California-based company called Maddox Defense—believe it could be a game-changer in the battle to keep COVID-19 at bay until a vaccine is produced.
Main said Xtreme Cubes has been in talks with pro sports leagues, casinos and construction firms about its mist product. It has already partnered with the Southern Nevada Health District. The cubes retail for $40,000, Main said.
“When you think of disinfecting, you have the hand sanitizer, but you’re only disinfecting your hands,” Main said. “You’re not rubbing that all over your face or on your clothes. What we’re saying is, when you come through an Xtreme Opti-Clean Cube, you’re disinfecting all exposed hard and soft surfaces.”
With the special cubes, Main said, even the bottom of a person’s shoes become disinfected with the dry mist.
In addition to the Opti-Clean Cubes, Xtreme Cubes also makes a smaller model that acts more like a shower facility, where a person stands for a short amount of time instead of walking through.
It’s a business play that makes sense for Xtreme Cubes, but Main said company officials—who weren’t even thinking of making the Opti-Clean Cubes just three months ago—also recognized an opportunity to help as the U.S. continues its battle against the novel coronavirus.
“We’re experts in engineering, architectural design, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics,” Main said. “We thought about what we could do to help the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s where we started to come up with some different solutions while thinking outside the box. We teamed up with some great partners, and here we are.”
One of their partners on the walk-through sanitation cube project is IWC Environmental Solutions, an Indiana-based company that specializes in the detection and elimination of pathogens like SARS-CoV-2 (or COVID-19).
As part of a study, IWC Environmental Solutions this year tested the dry mist inside rooms at a Michigan nursing home where a coronavirus outbreak had occurred. The results were convincing, Main said.
“This kills all types of viruses and bacteria, but it’s specifically been tested for COVID-19,” Main said. “We feel this is a very necessary bio-security protocol. These can be used for retail, residential, industrial, construction, schools, health care facilities, airports, farming, COVID-19 facilities. … This is going to be a rapidly growing vertical segment for us.”
Main said Xtreme Cubes is also in talks with a number of public and private schools in Southern Nevada. A future prototype, he said, could even include a metal detector.
It didn’t take long for the management team at Las Vegas-based SR Construction to be convinced it needed a few Opti-Clean Cubes for some of its work sites. SR, the first commercial customer for the cubes, bought three. Two will be placed at SR work sites in the Las Vegas Valley—one at Henderson Hospital and one at Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center—with the third pegged for a health care facility project in Reno.
“We learned about these on a Monday, and I think we made the purchase on a Friday,” said Scott Loughridge, president of SR Construction. “When we saw what they could do with these, and we already knew [Xtreme Cubes’] capabilities, we leaped at the chance to help protect our employees, our clients and the public. Plus, we’re a local company and they’re a local company, so it made a lot of sense.”
Xtreme Cubes makes everything from temporary workforce housing structures to portable closed-environment cannabis grow facilities—and was busy doing all that and more before the pandemic. But the COVID-19 crisis has Main and his cohorts thinking even bigger.
“These are challenging times, but it’s also exciting for us because we know we’re creating value and helping to enhance safety,” Main said. “This is a time where a lot of people are being laid off, but we’re doing the opposite. We’re hiring folks. I’m recruiting design engineers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, painters, fabricators, all the skilled trades you need to build these buildings.”