Coronavirus Technology Solutions
May 13, 2020
Comfort Ventilation with
Anti-Microbial Coatings can be
Repurposed to Fight COVID
Marley Engineered Products
Provides Anti-Microbial Coated
Ventilation Products
Don & Low will Add New Meltblown
Line for Face Masks in UK
Freudenberg Face Masks Made
Available This Week
Drylock will Make 100,000 Masks
per day in Spain
Kolmi-Hopen one of Four Major
Manufacturers of N95 Masks in
France
Ahlstrom -Munksio Media Being
Used by French Mask Makers
Battelle H2O2 Decontamination
System Being Deployed at Sixty
Locations
Lehigh University and St Luke’s
Team to Provide UV Mask
Decontamination
UV Finding Decontamination Uses
on Subways and Buses
____________________________________________________________________________
Comfort Ventilation with
Anti-Microbial Coatings can be
Repurposed to Fight COVID
Comfort heating and ventilation
products with anti-microbial
coatings can be repurposed to
direct HEPA filtered air through
the breathing zones of occupants
or to direct fresh outside air
into the breathing zone. Small
COVID aerosols act like
cigarette smoke. The ideal
system allows pure air to flow
downward and then potentially
contaminated air to be removed.
This example in a dentists
office was supplied by Blue Sky
Global.
The
proportion of recirculating and
purifying air with HEPA filters
versus introduction of more
outside air is dependent on
costs such as heating the
outside air. The use of
anti-microbial coatings in
ductwork and components which
can come into direct contact
with people is also important.
Marley Engineered Products
Provides Anti-Microbial Coated
Ventilation Products
Marley Engineered Products, LLC
draws upon a long history of
providing reliable comfort
heating and ventilation
solutions. It has manufacturing
operations in Bennettsville,
South Carolina along with
regional sales representatives
located throughout the United
Sates.
The company offers
anti-microbial coating on
ceiling panels, cabinet unit
heaters, convector heaters and
wall heaters.
All healthcare facilities
require comfort heating systems.
Systems that can be enhanced
with an antimicrobial coating
include those in:
Marley also makes air curtains.
Air curtains are used for a
variety of applications from
thermal barriers at drive-thru
windows to pest prevention. They
enable traffic to flow
unobstructed through openings
while maintaining separate
environments, resulting in
energy savings. Spaces like
supermarkets, schools,
hospitals, restaurants,
cafeterias, malls, and
processing plants are ideal for
electric air curtains.
The main purpose of air curtains
has been comfort from a
temperature perspective. But
these air curtains can also
insure that air moves in the
downward direction away from the
breathing zone.
This is an example
provided by Ortner.
In summary comfort heating and
ventilation with anti-microbial
coatings can be repurposed for
cost effective coronavirus
mitigation.
Don & Low will Add New Meltblown
Line for Face Masks in UK
Don & Low will add a new
meltblown line in Forfars,
Scotland with the help of the
Scottish
Government. The government
reportedly supplied £3.6 million
of the £4.5 million cost of the
supply and installation of the
new line, which will produce
meltblown material filter fabric
for use in FFP3 masks, the
highest designation of
respirator.
Scottish Government Minister for
Trade, Investment and
Innovation, Ivan McKee, says:
“Covid-19 isn’t going away any
time soon, so while we have
enough masks to protect our
frontline health and social care
workers now, we are also taking
a long-term view to build PPE
manufacturing capability in
Scotland to meet future need.
During these challenging times
it’s encouraging to see so many
Scottish businesses quickly
diversify their product lines
and invest in new equipment to
help us deliver what is needed,
when it’s needed.”
Don & Low director, Colin
Johnson says: “We are pleased to
be supported in making this new
investment that will allow us to
use our existing expertise to
address the shortages of these
key materials during the
COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.”
In late March, Don & Low
announced part of its business
would close to allow the company
to direct efforts towards the
production of face masks for NHS
workers. It said the company’s
woven textile manufacturing
facility would shut, with
available staff transferred to
nonwovens production.
Freudenberg Face Masks Made
Available This Week
Freudenberg
has started producing mouth-nose
masks for end-consumers. The
masks under the brand name “Collectex”
are now available in the Vileda
online shop and from retail
partners of the Freudenberg Home
and Cleaning Solutions Business
Group – initially only in
Germany.
Three Freudenberg Business
Groups – Freudenberg
Filtration Technologies, Freudenberg
Home and Cleaning Solutions and Freudenberg
Performance Materials –
have combined their expertise in
technical nonwovens, filter
media and distribution to begin
commercially selling face masks.
These efforts initially centered
on setting up inhouse mask
production in a short space of
time, initially delivering the
needed volumes to Freudenberg
sites. “Our objective was to
fulfill our responsibility to
our employees and society. We
acted quickly, expanded our
capacity and invested in
production equipment for the
manufacture of mouth-nose
masks,” says Dr. Mohsen Sohi,
CEO of the Freudenberg Group.
Freudenberg is limiting sales of
the masks to a maximum order of
two boxes per online customer to
help ensure fair distribution.
This filter
medium is made from a high-tech
nonwoven, which is also
manufactured in Germany. The
materials are processed into
masks in newly acquired
production lines launched in
phases at Freudenberg Filtration
Technologies – a first for the
German market. Freudenberg is
planning to expand capacity in
the next few weeks to eventually
allow it to make one million
masks per day in four shifts
around the clock seven days a
week. The technology group will
also continue to deliver media
for the production of face masks
to professional converters and
existing customers.
Drylock will Make 100,000 Masks
per day in Spain
Drylock Technologies has
partnered with the Ministry of
Development of the Junta de
Castilla y León in Segovia,
Spain, to create more than four
million surgical-hygienic masks
during the next three months.
The masks will be distributed to
community groups and
organizations.
Drylock, one of the leading
companies in the manufacture of
absorbent intimate hygiene
products, has created a separate
space for the line of
manufacture of this sanitary
material in its Segovian
factory. A 200 square meter
clean room will house a line
able to make 100,000 masks per
day.
Kolmi-Hopen one of Four Major
Manufacturers of N95 Masks in
France
In late March French president
Emmanuel Macron toured the
face-mask manufacturing plant
Kolmi-Hopen, in Saint-Barthelemy-d’Anjou
near Angers, to help reassure
French citizens that the
government is investing and
working to increase output, add
capacity and provide critical
care professionals with the
masks they need.
Ahlstrom-Munksjö products
Reliance SMS 200, Reliance SMS
300, Reliance Dextex 200
and Reliance Dextex 300 have
been declared compatible with
the French requirements for face
masks used by civil servants in
contact with the public. The
material is typically used for
the manufacturing of
sterilization wraps for surgical
instruments. Reliance SMS 200
and Reliance SMS 300 have also
been tested compatible with the
European standard EN 14683,
meeting the performance criteria
of surgical masks.
Battelle H2O2 Decontamination
System Being Deployed at Sixty
Locations
On
March 28, the US Food and Drug
Administration, which assesses
the safety of medical products,
issued its first emergency use
authorization (EUA) for a mask
decontamination technology to
Battelle’s Critical Care
Decontamination System. Then, in
April, the U.S. Federal
Government awarded Battelle a
contract to fund the system’s
deployment to 60 locations
throughout the US, including
sites in Seattle, Boston,
Chicago, and near New York City.
As of April 27, Battelle had
processed tens of thousands of
masks, including more than
30,000 for the Ohio Health
network.
The decontamination process
established in Ohio is just one
example of an
effort to respond to
shortages of N95 masks and other
PPE during the novel coronavirus
pandemic by finding ways to use
disposable equipment more than
once. Although such practices
are not approved for standard
care, the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention notes
that mask decontamination “may
be necessary”
when PPE supplies are severely
constrained during a crisis. A
handful of other technologies
have now joined Battelle’s
system on the FDA’s list
of EUAs.
And across the country,
health-care facilities are establishing
their own protocols,
many relying on well-known
disinfection methods like
ultraviolet light and heat, as
scientists work to understand
such methods’ effectiveness and
their long-term effects on
equipment performance.
Lehigh University and St Luke’s
Team to Provide UV Mask
Decontamination
A team from Lehigh University
and St. Luke’s University Health
Network created a system with
powerful ultraviolet
light to kill the coronavirus,
allowing the hospital to
decontaminate and re-use N95
masks.
The challenge was in creating a
machine that could handle a
large number of masks and evenly
bathe them in ultraviolet light,
ensuring they were
decontaminated on every surface.
The unit — 80 inches in diameter
and 5 feet tall, with tubes of
light surrounded by an octagonal
metal cage — was engineered by
Lehigh students and staff and
transported in a pickup truck to
St. Luke’s University Hospital
in Fountain Hill, where it was
assembled. Since April 5, The
hospital has processed 15,000
masks, including those used by
staff at nursing homes and
emergency responders.
The goal was to use enough UV-C
light to damage viruses and
bacteria but retain the
integrity of the N95 masks,
which can be degraded over time
by steam or chemicals. The masks
are hung on a hinged frame that
rotates, making sure both sides
of the mask get a blast of
sterilizing light that comes
from up to 13 cylindrical bulbs
at the center of the machine.
Masks can be zapped five to 10
times before they lose their
shape.
UV Finding Decontamination Uses
on Subways and Buses
The technology is being used
elsewhere to control the spread
of the virus.
New York City’s
Metropolitan Transportation
Authority in partnership with
Columbia University announced
plans to use UV-C lights to
disinfect the agency’s trains,
buses and work areas, according
to the New York Daily News.
Since the light is harmful in
high doses, the subways will
close from 1-5 a.m. for the
cleaning. Columbia researchers
are working on technology called
“far UV-C” that could kill
COVID-19 without harming people,
making it possible to disinfect
subways and buses while riders
are aboard. |