Coronavirus Technology Solutions
May 18, 2020
Meltblown Availability Crucial
Techmer PM Develops Technology
to Help Meltblown Fabrics
Maintain Electrical Charge
Midwest Textiles, Hollingsworth
& Vose Partner to Develop
Homemade Facemask Kit
Bondex Ramps up Production of
Material for PPE & N95 Facemasks
Fraunhofer ITWM Software
Predicts Meltblown Fiber Matrix
INDA Mobilizing the Non Wovens
Suppliers to Provide more
Meltblown Capacity in the U.S
Respirator Masks Media Dominated
by 3M in the U.S
INDA Identifies Eight Companies
Interested in Investing in U.S.
Meltblown Production
Meltblown Capacity in the U.S.
Up 23 Percent in 2020 European Capacity Small Compared to China
3M will Produce 2 billion Masks
per year with 600 million per
year coming from U.S. Plants
INEOS
Built Two New Hand
Sanitizer Plants in the U.S. to
Provide Hand Sanitizer to
Hospitals for Free
Tata Chemicals Supplying
Disinfectant
___________________________________________________________________________
Meltblown Availability Crucial
The availability of meltblown
non wovens or alternative
filtration media for masks will
be crucial
in the battle against
COVID. A significant quantity of
virus aerosols are similar in
size and flight pattern to
cigarette smoke. To protect a
wearer an efficient media such
as electrostatically charged
meltblown
is needed.
In our Alert on May 15th we
theorized that half of the
world’s 8 billion people should
be wearing N95 masks which are
reused five times. Therefore 800
million masks need to be
produced each day.
N95 masks utilize more meltblown
media than do surgical masks.
Over the weekend we benefited
from subscriber feedback and
revised the ratio of meltblown
media per mask.
We went back to the basics and
learned that the weight of
meltblown media can vary from
less than 20 grams/m2 in some
medical masks to well over 80
grams/m2 for N99 efficiency. For
a typical 50 in2
(0.03 m2) and 30 gram/m2
mask 1 ton of meltblown will
produce 1 million masks with 0.9
grams of meltblown each.
Our original 5 to 1 ratio
was based on the Sinopec either
or situation where 50% more tons
can be converted when making
medical mask media.
These
numbers show that we need
somewhere between 800 and 2285
tons of meltblowns or equivalent
per day to make people safe. We
are far from that production
level now.
Sinopec has constructed
18 tpy of meltblown capacity for
face masks.
This makes it # 1 with
3M at 15 tpy This would be
impressive if it were not for
the huge need before us.
Another way to look at it is in
terms of total non wovens
production. Adding 2285 tpd to
the existing 40,000 tpd of all
non wovens is not that much of
an expansion.
There
are many discrepancies in data
being reported
from different sources.
Also it is necessary to single
out production and not use. The
daily alerts are filled with
relevant information as follows
There are many Chinese, U.S. and
European companies who are
developing and commercially
offering nanofiber membrane
fabrics which do not rely on
electrostatic forces and can be
washed more times without
efficiency deterioration.
Also some of the mask
decontamination procedures have
demonstrated
the ability to
successfully decontaminate masks
more than the five times we used
in the above estimate.
We are asking our subscribers to
help us fill in the blanks to
clarify some of the
inconsistencies in what is being
reported. We will be upgrading
these statistics continually.
As demand surges for facemasks
during the COVID-19 pandemic,
Techmer PM, LLC, has developed a
technology to improve the
efficacy of the fabrics used in
the production of such masks.
The technology, called the
Charge Enhancer, is used during
the production of meltblown
nonwoven fabrics to help the
resulting masks meet the
filtration performance
requirements set forth by ASTM
F2100.
Techmer PM provides its Charge
Enhancer in pellet form to
producers of meltblown
nonwovens, who then add it to
polypropylene in a concentration
of 4- 5%.
As the extruded nonwoven comes
off the production line in roll
form, the material is subjected
to an electrical charge via an
air plasma treatment, also known
as “corona” charging (no
relation to the coronavirus).
The Charge Enhancer technology
helps the meltblown fabric
enhance and retain the
electrical charge imparted by
corona charging.
“Without the Charge Enhancer,
the mask media would struggle to
retain a filtration efficiency
of ≥95%,” said Bhushan
Deshpande, Techmer PM’s vice
president of technology.
Techmer PM is also testing new
technology designed to provide
more permanent charge-enhancing
effects compared to what is
currently available. “This newer
technology will be well suited
for mask manufacturers looking
to develop reusable masks,”
according to Deshpande.
Midwest Textiles and
Hollingsworth & Vose (H&V) are
collaborating on a new
ready-to-sew face mask kit for
the general public. The new
collaboration between Midwest
and H&V offers an improvement to
the everyday consumer by adding
a layer of Nanoweb FM to the
mask. Nanoweb FM is new
filtration media made by H&V,
designed for use in homemade
face masks.
“H&V is one of the world’s
leading producers of filtration
media for face masks and many
other filtration applications.
By partnering with Midwest, and
through the development of
Nanoweb® FM media, we are able
to help support individuals and
communities across the country
that are struggling to obtain
basic levels of protection,”
said Mike Clark, Division
President at H&V. “Our new
Nanoweb® FM media was designed
specifically for general use in
homemade face masks and can be
inserted in a face mask pocket
or stitched into a disposable
pleated mask.”
Consumers can purchase
ready-to-sew face mask kits and
Nanoweb® FM media for homemade
masks at www.sitnsewfabrics.com.
One kit containing 4 masks will
cost $24.95, and it is estimated
to take 15 minutes to sew and
assemble each mask.
To support the industry demand
for PPE materials, Bondex, a
producer of carded thermal bond,
hydroentangled and needlepunch
nonwovens, is dedicating a
portion of its capacity to
produce materials designed for
use in N95 mask construction and
materials for use in isolation
gowns and other PPE
applications.
Bondex develops a polypropylene
nonwoven that is used in both
mask and isolation gown
applications, as well as
hydroentangled polyester that is
also used in the construction of
mask materials.
“We have implemented plans as
necessary to continue our supply
to our customers though the
pandemic crisis,” says Bondex
president Brian Little. “We have
also recognized the needs in
society to help battle this
COVID-19 pandemic so we are
adding staff in order to supply
technical nonwovens for selected
PPE applications in order to
support these key initiatives.”
Fraunhofer ITWM Software
Predicts Meltblown Fiber Matrix
With meltblown technology,
nonwoven fabrics are produced
directly from granules. A
special spinning process in
combination with high-speed hot
air is used to produce
fine-fibered nonwovens with
different structures. The fibers
are highly stretched by the
turbulent air flow. During this
process they swirl in the air,
become entangled and fall more
or less randomly onto a conveyor
belt where they are further
consolidated – a very complex
process. Nonwovens manufacturers
around the world are striving to
massively increase their
production capacities.
This is where Fraunhofer ITWM’s
software comes into play. “Our
Fiber Dynamics Simulation Tool
FIDYST is used to predict the
movement of the fibers, their
falling and the orientation with
which they are laid down on the
conveyor belt. Depending on the
process settings, turbulence
characteristics are generated
and thus nonwoven qualities are
created that differ in
structure, fiber density and
strength,” explains Dr. Walter
Arne from the Fraunhofer ITWM.
He has been working at the
institute for years on the
simulation of various processes
involving fibers and filaments.
The methodology is well
transferable to meltblown
processes. In these processes,
one of the specific features is
the simulation of filament
stretching in a turbulent air
flow – how the stretching takes
place, the dynamics of the
filaments and the diameter
distribution. These are all
complex aspects that have to be
taken into account, but also the
flow field or the temperature
distribution. The simulations of
the scientists at the Fraunhofer
ITWM then provide a qualitative
and quantitative insight into
the fiber formation in such
meltblown processes – unique in
the world in this form when it
comes to simulate a turbulent
spinning process (meltblown).
INDA Mobilizing the Non Wovens
Suppliers to Provide more
Meltblown Capacity in the U.S
Dave Rousse of INDA provides the
Fiber Journal with the latest on
INDA efforts to mobilize the
meltblown industry. Prior to
2020 (i.e., pre-COVID-19), over
80% of the U.S. demand for
medical and surgical face masks
(N95 Respirators, N95 Masks,
ASTM Level 1,2,3 Masks) was
supplied by China and Taiwan.
When the COVID-19 situation took
hold, both entities withdrew
exports of these items to supply
their own national demands. The
U.S. was left scrambling for
these materials for healthcare
workers just as healthcare
workers were getting inundated
with infected patients.
INDA has worked diligently to
identify supplies of the
much-needed nonwoven material
needed to deliver the filtration
performance of these
medical/surgical masks and
respirators. That material is
known as meltblown, a
polypropylene mat of fine fibers
of fixed diameter, pore size and
pore density, electrostatically
charged to capture the fine
particles of bacteria and
viruses. Rousse says “ We have
successfully pulled into the
supply chain incremental tonnage
from mothballed machines, pilot
lines, and manufacturers
producing meltblown for other
industries. But it is not
enough.
For the U.S. to become
self-sufficient in this area,
new investment is needed in
meltblown manufacturing and that
will not be done by the private
sector without incentives and
without alleviating the risk of
China and Taiwan restoring their
position as the dominant
suppliers of U.S. demand for
medical and surgical face masks.
The market for monolithic
meltblown (as opposed to
meltblown in a composite with
spunbond nonwoven, as is used in
surgical gowns) is a very
specialized and small part of
overall nonwoven production in
North America. The estimated
2019 U.S. capacity of meltblown
is 250,000 tonnes (metric tons).
This represents just 4.8% of the
5.2 million tonnes of overall
North American nonwoven
capacity.
In North America, there are an
estimated 75 monolithic
meltblown lines in a market with
more than 850 nonwoven lines. Of
the estimated 2019 meltblown
production, 34% was directed
towards filtration media
(including facemask media and
other filtration media), 20% to
wipes, 16% to absorbent hygiene,
13% transportation, 8% sorbents,
5% medical/surgical, and 4%
apparel. It is estimated that of
the monolithic meltblown
capacity, prior to the crisis,
78% was used internally by the
producing companies (i.e.,
vertically integrated).
There are 17 companies that have
monolithic meltblown lines. Not
all of these companies are
capable of making meltblown to
medical/surgical facemask media
specifications, nor are some of
the lines configured to be able
to sell to the market, as
vertically integrated meltblown
lines feed the next process, not
put fabric in roll form for
shipment. Some of the sorbent
meltblown producers that use the
material internally have or are
working on being able to produce
facemask media for the market
and smaller pilot lines are or
will be providing meltblown to
the market.
Additionally, within the 1.48
million tonne spunlaid (melted
resin) market are
spunbond-meltblown composite
lines that include meltblown
beams. This spunmelt capacity
was estimated at 482,000 tonnes
in 2019. There are approximately
50 multi-beam lines with
meltblown beams in North
America. Some of these producers
have the capability to produce
just meltblown, and at least one
is, but the economics of running
meltblown only on an SMS line
are very poor. A handful of the
lines have multiple meltblown
beams. There are eight companies
with these types of lines in the
U.S. and two (3M and Halyard
Health) consume all of their
material internally for either
facemask media or protective
medical apparel.
https://fiberjournal.com/achieving-us-self-sufficiency-on-meltblown-fabric-for-facemasks/
Respirator Masks Media Dominated
by 3M in the U.S
This is primarily the domain of
3M, with an estimated market
share of 80%. 3M is vertically
integrated in the U.S. producing
nonwovens and converting. Owens
& Minor’s Halyard Health
(vertical integrated, nonwovens
produced in U.S. and converted
in Mexico and/or Honduras),
Kimberly-Clark Professional
(assume vertically integrated
and converted in U.S.), and
Prestige Ameritech (converter)
also produce these types of mask
INDA Identifies Eight Companies
Interested in Investing in U.S.
Meltblown Production
The major U.S. producers are 3M,
Cardinal Health (typically U.S
sourced nonwovens converted by
Cardinal in Mexico), Halyard
Health, Kimberly-Clark
Professional, Prestige Ameritech
and Gersten. There are several
companies now getting into
facemask production, but they
cannot make the medical/surgical
facemasks without the meltblown
media, and they are not able to
source this product at this
time.
To increase the U.S. production
of the much-needed meltblown
fabric, new investment is needed
in the production machinery.
INDA has identified eight
companies operating in the U.S.
who are interested in investing
in monolithic meltblown
production under the right
conditions of incentives and
sustainable demand. Five of
these companies are U.S.-owned;
three are U.S. companies with
foreign ownership. All
have the nonwoven operating
experience and meltblown
technology expertise to get a
new machine up and running.
All are concerned that once this
crisis is over, the supply chain
will revert to Asia based on
price.
What is needed to provide
confidence to these willing
participants is some incentive
to make the investment now
(grants, partial funding, etc.)
and a long-term view of
sustained demand to enable the
investment to earn-out. Most
investments in the nonwovens
industry need a three-year
payback to be approved.
https://fiberjournal.com/achieving-us-self-sufficiency-on-meltblown-fabric-for-facemasks/
Meltblown Capacity in the U.S.
Up 23 Percent in 2020
Brad
Kalil of INDA reports that there
were eight companies operating
44 composite spunmelt (SMS)
lines in the USA, which were
already operating to 92%
capacity before the new demand
arose. SMS lines are a
substantial investment decision,
and at present, only one new
line will start operations in
2021.
A
further seventeen companies are
operating spunbond lines and at
91% capacity. While one new
spunbond line began operating in
2018, two older ones closed down
and a third in 2019. A new
spunbond line is scheduled to
start operations later this
year, or in early 2021.
There
are a further 24 companies
operating 79 specialized
meltblown lines, but only eight
of the companies are dealing
with the consumer market. Some
21 of these lines only began
operating in 2018 and three to
four have been added this year,
in addition to five pilot lines
switching to consumer
production.
Around 45% of this output is for
filter media, which requires
finer fibres and electrostatic
charging, while the remainder is
for applications including
transportation and wipes and a
range of other niche
applications.
Output has already increased by
23% in response to the pandemic,
and INDA estimates there is
still an estimated 18% of unused
capacity. The organization is in
dialogue with manufacturers of
sorbent products for oil
containment applications as one
potential source of new
materials.
European Capacity Small Compared
to China
Meltblown production has emerged
as an acute bottleneck because
Europe has so far relied heavily
on Asian suppliers. Assembling
and installing the highly
specialized meltblowing machines
normally takes over a year. Lead
times are now being cut to a few
months. Textiles lobby group
Euratex has set up with the EU
an online exchange where
companies post offers and
requests for services and
materials. That shows 32
companies are in need of various
mask materials, nine of which
are specifically asking for air
filter material.
EDANA,
an association of mainly
European non-woven fabric
makers, says meltblown capacity
in Europe is limited, while
output in Asia is much larger.
In China, the No. 1 producer,
companies controlled by the
central government are expected
to reach production of over 70
tonnes of meltblown per day, or
more than 25,000 tonnes per
year, including new production
lines of Sinopec and China
National Petroleum Corp, state
media Xinhua reported on March
30. That is up from a current
daily supply of 42.5 tonnes.
According to EDANA , production
of overall non-wovens in Europe
was 2.8 million tonnes in 2019
but meltblown was only a
fraction of that.
At 350,000 N95 masks per ton of
melt blown 3M is using 15 tons
of melt blown per day.
Sinopec is the number
producer of melt blown mask
media at 18 tpd.
As the novel coronavirus spread
throughout China, it became
clear that a key piece of
protective equipment for health
care workers was the N95
respirator mask.
Maplewood-based 3M, as the
largest maker of N95s, kicked
into high gear to make as many
as possible at its Shanghai
plant, nine hours east of Wuhan
— the epicenter of the disease
in China.
As the coronavirus mushroomed
across the rest of the world, a
global shortage of N95s would
develop and test 3M like nothing
else in its 118-year history.
Entering the year, only 15% of
3M’s N95s were made for health
care customers. Not even four
months later, it’s now 90%. That
“flip” was done at the same time
3M raced to quadruple production
rates, said Denise Rutherford,
3M’s senior vice president for
corporate affairs.
The dash to ramp up production
involved opening idled
production lines and finding
factory workers to get them
going. It meant overcoming
regulatory and trade barriers,
changing supply chains on the
fly and reconfiguring its
distribution.
It wasn’t all smooth — from the
operational or public relations
standpoints. 3M had to navigate
a political firestorm when
President Donald Trump decided
it was not working fast enough
to achieve U.S. needs.
GLEN STUBBE, STAR TRIBUNE
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White
House's coronavirus response
coordinator, held an N95 mask as
she visited 3M headquarters in
Maplewood in March with Vice
President Mike Pence.
Yet industry watchers are
lauding 3M as handling it
particularly well, even as it
was dealing with cratering
demand for other stalwart lines
such as automotive and
industrial products as the
economy slowed to unprecedented
levels amid the fight to stop
COVID-19’s spread.
Coming off a tough year, 3M’s
financials are expected to show
the same effects seen by other
big global companies when 3M
reports first-quarter results
Tuesday.
“3M is definitely not immune
from what is transpiring in the
economy, but there are pieces of
the economy that are obviously
going to see somewhat of a
windfall,” Edward Jones analyst
Matt Arnold said.
When 3M saw the severity of the
coronavirus spread in China in
January, the company accelerated
its production. It had been down
this road before with smaller
outbreaks of SARS and H1N1. At
that time, 3M bought extra
manufacturing equipment for each
of its factories around the
world that made personal
protective equipment (PPE).
As one team worked on
distribution, another increased
manufacturing. The company has
pledged to double its worldwide
N95 manufacturing twice since
January for a total of 2 billion
masks a year.
Yet by January, 3M had maxed out
its N95 manufacturing in
Shanghai. Weeks later, its mask
factories in South Dakota and
Nebraska were also running 24/7.
The company added equipment in
Aberdeen, S.D., to increase
capacity.
By the end of June, 3M’s two
U.S. plants should be making 50
million N95s a month. Until
then, 3M arranged for its
factory in China to export more
here.
As 3M was working with trade
groups, governments and
supply-chain experts to figure
out how to increase the imports,
Trump inserted himself strongly
into the situation at the
beginning of the month. Trump
invoked the Defense Production
Act on April 2, ordering 3M to
send as many respirator masks as
needed to the Federal Emergency
Management Agency.
As Roman pushed back, calling
“absurd” claims that the company
wasn’t doing as much as it could
to help U.S. customers, 3M also
was negotiating with the Trump
administration. Within a week,
Trump publicly said he now liked
working with 3M and announced a
$76 million federal contract
with the company.
3M agreed to import 166.5
million masks from China by
July. That would help infuse the
U.S. with extra supplies until
3M’s South Dakota and Nebraska
production rates were high
enough.
INEOS
Built Two New Hand
Sanitizer Plants in the U.S. to
Provide Hand Sanitizer to
Hospitals for Free.
The facilities will be located
in Jacksonville, near Little
Rock Arkansas and Neville Island
in Pennsylvania. Each site will
produce 1 million bottles of
hand sanitizer each month, to
help with the nationwide
shortage. These will be produced
according to World Health
Organization specifications,
specifically designed to kill
bacteria and viruses.
Hand to mouth contamination is
one of the main ways that the
Coronavirus infects people and
there is a critical shortage of
hand sanitizers across the USA.
Supplies to hospitals will be
free of charge for the period of
the crisis with the public being
able to purchase bottles through
retailers.
Ineos has already built hand
sanitizer facilities in the
UK,
Germany and
France to supply 4
million bottles across Europe.
Many other chemical companies
have initiated production of
hand sanitizers to help fight
COVID-19, including
Shell,
ExxonMobil,
Axalta, BASF,
PPG,
Johnson Matthey,
Lanxess and many more.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, founder and
chairman of INEOS adds, “INEOS
is a company with enormous
resources and manufacturing
skills. We will supply a million
bottles of hand sanitizer a
month from each of our new
plants in Arkansas and
Pennsylvania with the same again
in the UK, France and Germany.
If we can find other ways to
help in the Coronavirus battle,
we remain absolutely committed
to playing our part.”
INEOS produces chemicals that go
into antibiotics, paracetamol,
anti-inflammatories, anti-virals,
aspirin and the reagent
chemicals that go into testing
kits and the plastics going into
medical equipment, face masks,
ventilators, sterile gloves, eye
visors. Their acetonitrile is
used in essential pharmaceutical
analysis in the procedures
necessary to find a vaccine.
Tata Chemicals Supplying
Disinfectant
In its fight against the novel
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,
Tata Chemicals Ltd.
(Mumbai, India) has manufactured
and supplied more than 1.1
million liters of disinfectant
to Gujarat and 480,000 liters to
BMC, Maharashtra. To meet the
increased requirement of hand
sanitizer, Tata Chemicals Ltd’s
subsidiary Rallis India has
transformed its chemical units
at Akola and Ankleshwar and has
produced and supplied 75,300
liters of hand sanitizer across
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana
and Karnataka.
In line with Tata Group’s
initiatives, Tata Chemicals and
its units have adopted a
two-pronged approach to tackle
this unprecedented situation.
One intervention focuses on
supporting the government and
the other one on supporting the
local communities.
Through Self Help Groups (SHGs)
and artisans associated with the
Company’s Okhai initiative, Tata
Chemicals has produced about
73000 masks in Mithapur and
Cuddalore, which are being
distributed to police, local
community, drivers, security
workers and more. Through Okhai,
the company has also connected
SHGs making masks across India
and made available 87,000 masks
for open-market suppliers.
Besides supplying the
life-saving masks, this effort
has also supported the
livelihood of more than 275
women.
Ms Alka Talwar, Chief of CSR and
Sustainability at Tata
Chemicals, said, “Following the
Tata Group’s philosophy of
putting the community ahead of
business, we are extending our
full support to the government
and the local people. It’s a
fight and we are #InItTogether.
Tata Chemicals is committed to
supporting the society through
science-led intervention with a
human touch.” |