Coronavirus Technology Solutions
June 9, 2020
BRIDG Offers Cleanroom
Space for Suppliers of COVID PPE and Supplies
Twelfth Sinopec Meltblown Line Commissioned
Irema Sold Out On Masks Until October
Hair Salons in California Reopen with Air
Purifiers and Masks
Electrocorp Supplies Air Filters for Police
Evidence Rooms and Crime Scenes
WHO Tries to Clear Up Views on Ways Infection is
Transmitted
Anti-Microbial Coating Could be Effective for
Ninety Days
______________________________________________________________________________
BRIDG is
offering cleanroom space and seeking
partnerships to help alleviate shortages in
ventilators, Personal Protective Equipment
(PPE), and other life-saving medical supplies
and strengthen the U.S. response to COVID-19.
The BRIDG fab features 26,500 sq. ft. of Class
100 (ISO Class 5) cleanroom space with a full
sub-fab, and 9,400 sq. ft. Class 10K (ISO Class
7) cleanroom space. There is space available in
each cleanroom and the sub-fab to support
life-saving medical supply production.
The manufacturing ecosystem plays a significant
role in addressing this national emergency. In
response, BRIDG has made portions of its
cleanrooms available for partners that have the
equipment required for production of these
products.
BRIDG remains committed to its vision of
repatriating semiconductor technologies for
national security and diversifying Florida’s
economy through the creation of high skill and
high wage jobs in the fields of
microelectronics.
Twelfth Sinopec Meltblown Line Commissioned
Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd., a
subsidiary of China's largest oil refiner
Sinopec, put into operation the twelfth of its
twelve meltblown non-woven fabric production
lines Saturday to meet the brisk demand of face
mask producers.
Sinopec has now completed the construction of
all sixteen of its production lines of such
fabric. After those production lines become
fully operational and combine with Sinopec's
joint venture enterprises, which can produce 7
metric tons of meltblown non-woven fabric per
day, the company's daily production capacity is
expected to reach 37 metric tons and its annual
production capacity will exceed 13,500 metric
tons, which can be used in making 13.5 billion
medical masks.
As the essential material to make masks, the
non-woven fabric is the core raw material that
serves as the filtering layer in the middle part
of masks to absorb dust, bacteria and pollen.
Sinopec is the upstream producer of the
polypropylene raw materials in the industrial
mask chain. Faced with a market shortage of
masks, the company invested 300 million yuan
(about 42 million U.S. dollars) to build the
production facilities in its subsidiaries
Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
in Beijing and Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fiber in
eastern Jiangsu Province.
Nine articles about them appeared in previous
Alerts.
You can search and retrieve them as
follows
Search results for: Sinopec
9 results found.
Sorted by relevance / Sort
by date
1. McIlvaine
Coronavirus Market Ale
... Supply
WHO Analyzes Mask Shortage Shortage of Masks
Sparks Controversies Among Countries Chinese
Mask Supply Sinopec Moving
from Resin to Mask Supplier Chinese Car
Companies become Mask Suppliers Chinese Supply
vs ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 74 - 29
Apr 2020 - URL:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/coronavirus/subscriber/Alerts/2020-03-31/20200331.html
2. McIlvaine
Coronavirus Market Ale
... Keeping
Score on Medical and N95 Mask Production
Shortage of Meltblown Fabric for Face Masks Sinopec can
Make 5 million N95 Masks per day ____ The U.S.
Forcing 3M ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 69 - 29
Apr 2020 - URL:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/coronavirus/subscriber/Alerts/2020-04-06/20200406.html
3. McIlvaine
Coronavirus Market Ale
... 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 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 32 - 18
May 2020 - URL:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/coronavirus/subscriber/Alerts/2020-05-18/Alert_202005018.html
4. McIlvaine
Coronavirus Market Ale
... ,
Mississippi, Started Production of Face Mask
Media Shaoyang Textile Machinery Co Starts Up Sinopec Melt
Blown Line on March 29 Reifenhauser Teams with
Vietnamese Producer to Make Masks Meltblown ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 28 - 29
Apr 2020 - URL:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/coronavirus/subscriber/Alerts/2020-04-27/Alert_20200427.html
5. McIlvaine
Coronavirus Market Ale
... the
first batch of melt blown non-woven fabrics of
Yanshan Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Sinopec,
was officially sold. On this day, it was only 15
days before ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 20 - 29
Apr 2020 - URL:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/coronavirus/subscriber/Alerts/2020-04-10/20200410.html
6. Coronavirus
Alerts Table of Contents
... ,
Mississippi, Started Production of Face Mask
Media Shaoyang Textile Machinery Co Starts Up Sinopec Melt
Blown Line on March 29 Reifenhauser Teams with
Vietnamese Producer to Make Masks Meltblown ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 16 - 9
Jun 2020 - URL:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/coronavirus/subscriber/Alerts/TofC.html
7. McIlvaine
Coronavirus Market Ale
... )
and Mida (000782) have also enjoyed the ride. In
addition, Sinopec (NYSE:
SNP; 0386.HK; 600028.SH), one of China's leading
petroleum ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 6 - 29
Apr 2020 - URL:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/coronavirus/subscriber/Alerts/2020-04-15/Alert_20200415.html
8. McIlvaine
Coronavirus Market Ale
... Masks
per day Meltblown world capacity as of Jan 2020
1000 1 billion 200 million Sinopec (either
or) 18 18 million 3.6 million 3M 2019 15 3
million 3M ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 6 - 15
May 2020 - URL:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/coronavirus/subscriber/Alerts/2020-05-14/Alert_202005014.html
9. McIlvaine
Coronavirus Market Ale
... production
by 34 tons per day in the next 7 months. Compare
this to Sinopec who
built 10 lines for 18 tpd production in just 4
months. This would ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 6 - 30
May 2020 - URL:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/coronavirus/subscriber/Alerts/2020-05-29/Alert_202005029.html
Irema Sold Out On Masks Until October
Due to the unprecedented scale of the Covid-19
outbreak and its commitment to provide constant
supply to
existing customers and the Irish Health
Service Executive, Irema Ireland is no longer
accepting orders for Surgical and Respirator
Face Masks for delivery prior to October 2020.
The Air Filtration and HVAC Filter Media
business continues to operate as normal.
Irema is a manufacturer of meltblown
polypropylene filter media for air conditioning
and ventilation industries. The meltblown
technology allows it to produce a diverse range
of filter media with fine and coarse microfibers,
making it the definitive choice for producing
air filters for medium and fine filtration. The
texture of the meltblown fibre makes it is an
exemplary media for processing by sewing,
ultrasonic welding and pleating.
With nearly 30 years in the face mask
manufacturing industry, Irema strives
to develop the most innovative products
that evolve and continue to meet customer’s
individual needs.
The face mask production area has grown seven
fold to offer a diverse portfolio that includes:
Tie-on, Ear Loop, XtraComfort for Sensitive
Skin, Anti-Splash, Anti-fog, Extra Large,
Anti-splash with Visor and FFP2 and FFP3 Flat
Fold Respirator.
Irema has hiked its workforce by 50pc and
pivoted production to making a million masks
weekly for the HSE's supply chain, mostly
single-use surgical masks.
But managing director John Rice said the firm,
based in Kilmallock south of Limerick city, is
rapidly ramping up production of reusable
respirator-grade masks. These block the
inhalation of viruses, whereas surgical masks do
not.
Irema was delivering about 150,000 respirator
masks weekly to the HSE and hopes to reach
250,000 next week after equipment for a second
production line arrives from the firm's Thai
subsidiary.
In normal times, Irema - a contract manufacturer
for US conglomerate 3M and other medical device
suppliers - produces no masks directly for the
HSE, only select hospitals.
But once it looked likely that Covid-19 would
arrive in Ireland, Irema agreed with HSE supply
chiefs to move to round-the-clock production of
masks for front-line healthcare workers.
"It's a big step up to move to a 24/7 operation
and double your output," Mr. Rice said.
"We've gone from zero masks directly to the HSE
to a million a week. We'll be producing at
maximum capacity until September at least," he
said.
Irema's website advises firms and the public not
to call seeking to buy masks directly. The phone
keeps ringing regardless.
"We are turning away anything between 40 and 60
enquiries a day for products. We've been doing
this for the last month," he said. "We're fully
committed to the HSE and can't take other
orders. We can't do any more.
Hair Salons in California Reopen with Air
Purifiers and Masks
From lockdown to reopening, with women
entrepreneurs at the helm, Ukiah hair salons are
cautiously rebounding, opening doors to clients
who have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity
to see their stylists again and return to a
regular routine of personal care.
Moving into Phase 3 of a four-part plan,
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on May 26
the easing of restrictions for barbershops and
hair salons for counties that had met specific
health criteria—less than 25 new cases per
100,000 residents in the past 14 days or less
than 8 percent testing positive in the last
week—that require enhanced cleaning protocols
and facial coverings.
On May 24, the California Board of Barbering and
Cosmetology, working in collaboration with
Newsom, applauded him for developing safety
guidelines and developed additional prevention
practices for their licensed practitioners.
These include physical distancing to the maximum
extent possible, use of face coverings by
workers and customers/clients, frequent
handwashing and regular cleaning and
disinfection, and training workers on these and
other elements of the COVID-19 prevention plan.
Shirley Matilton of Feathers Hair Artistry
opened softly last week, catering to senior
citizens and those with compromised health.
Shirley Matilton is a, cosmetologist and
certified international instructor. She
changes her disposable mask after each
client and wears a face shield for additional
protection.
“Health and safety are the most important
considerations,” she says, “but I can’t book
like I used to; it’s physically challenging,
exhausting, to work under the limitations of the
face mask and shield.”
She greets her clients outside her shop, takes
their temperature with a no-touch, has them fill
out a health questionnaire—posted on her
Facebook page—and hands them a disposable mask.
Her recently purchased air purifiers are running
and she spends 20-30 minutes cleaning everything
between clients, with medical grade
disinfectant, including work stations, door
knobs, chairs. She steps outside for 45 seconds
and lets the ultraviolet light system disinfect.
It’s one-on-one in her shop—Matilton and the
customer.
“Supplies have been difficult to come by;
no-touch thermometers are not available for sale
in the county. I’ve had to order them from
out-of-state. I also have full body paper
jumpers that I will be wearing next week.”
Electrocorp Supplies Air Filters for Police
Evidence Rooms and Crime Scenes
Electrocorp's full line of Industrial Air
Scrubbers, Air Cleaners, and Air Purifiers are
manufactured for industrial, manufacturing, and
commercial use. Air Scrubbers with Micro-HEPA
can filter microorganisms down to 0.1 micron.
Air Cleaners with 20 watt UV can kill bacteria
and viruses like the Coronavirus COVID-19.
Electrocorp Air Scrubbers range from 735CFM, to
1000 CFM, and 2000 CFM units, all units can have
Germicidal 20 watt UV lights added.
When a sheriff’s office in a county in North
Carolina experienced air quality problems, they
did not merely accept it as unavoidable - they
found a solution in the RSU 48 CC.
IAQ concerns in law enforcement are much more
profound than those found in other workspaces:
Not only are law-enforcement officers exposed to
the “normal” IAQ contaminants from building
materials, communication centers and ventilation
systems, but also to contaminants linked
specifically to police work -- including
overstocked property rooms, evidence in form of
narcotics, bio-hazards, flammable liquids,
weapons, fire aftermath, etc. -- which all add
up to a substantial list of possible indoor air
quality concerns and correlated health effects.
Electrocorp has equipped countless police
stations and property rooms across North America
with powerful activated carbon and HEPA air
cleaners to provide relief from these airborne
contaminants and to ensure better workplace
health and safety conditions.
The sheriff's office in North Carolina had to
store drugs such as marijuana plants in the
evidence room, and there were noticeable odors
in the closed-off space.
Conventional air purifiers that rely on HEPA
filtration would not have been effective in this
case. HEPA removes only fine particles and dust
from the ambient air.
For fumes, odors, chemicals and gases, the best
filtration media is virgin activated carbon.
Made from natural materials such as wood and
coconut husks and treated with oxygen, activated
carbon is extremely porous and provides a large
internal surface area for the adsorption of
gaseous pollutants.
The evidence room technicians soon noticed a
difference in air quality.
“With the odors of drugs, especially marijuana,”
says T.K. of the North Carolina sheriff's office
in question, “this system removes the odors and
smell of different types of evidence for all
personnel handling the evidence in and around
the vault. [It] has been one of the best
investments for the evidence technicians in the
evidence vault. ”
When police officers are investigating a case or
following up a call, they simply never know what
they will encounter. Poor indoor air quality
awaits in many homes, workplaces, warehouses,
etc., and police officers may suddenly be
exposed to airborne chemicals, fumes, drugs, and
more. If the crime involved arson and a fire,
the volatile gases that were released during the
fire may linger and affect the officers’ health.
Once a crime scene is established, a portable
air cleaner can help remove harmful contaminants
(chemicals, fumes, particles, biological
contaminants) without hindering the
investigation.
WHO Tries to Clear Up Views on Ways Infection is
Transmitted
The World Health Organization tried on Tuesday
to clear up confusing comments about how often
people can spread the coronavirus when they do
not have symptoms.
The organization held a live Q&A on its social
media pages to
address questions about comments made by a WHO
official that suggested asymptomatic people only
rarely spread Covid-19.
The comments appeared to directly contradict
guidance from public health organizations,
including the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, which have said about
a third of coronavirus infections may be
asymptomatic.
The CDC also estimates that 40%
of coronavirus transmission is
occurring before people feel sick, meaning they
are presymptomatic.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for
coronavirus response and head of its emerging
diseases and zoonoses unit, said during a media
briefing in Geneva on Monday that "it still
seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person
actually transmits onward to a secondary
individual."
But then on Tuesday, during the live Q&A, she
clarified "this is a major unknown."
"The majority of transmission that we know about
is that people who have symptoms transmit the
virus to other people through infectious
droplets -- but there are a subset of people who
don't develop symptoms, and to truly understand
how many people don't have symptoms, we don't
actually have that answered yet," Van Kerkhove
said.
"We do know that some people who are
asymptomatic, or some people who don't have
symptoms, can transmit the virus on," she said.
"So what we need to better understand is how
many of the people in the population don't have
symptoms and separately how many of those
individuals go on to transmit to others."
On Monday, Van Kerkhove had said that what
appear to be asymptomatic cases of Covid-19
often turn out to be cases of mild disease.
When we actually go back and we say how many of
them were truly asymptomatic, we find out that
many have really mild disease," Van Kerkhove
said on Monday.
"They're not quote-unquote Covid symptoms --
meaning they may not have developed fever yet,
they may not have had a significant cough, or
they may not have shortness of breath -- but
some may have mild disease," Van Kerkhove said.
"Having said that, we do know that there can be
people who are truly asymptomatic."
Van Kerkhove added that she was referring to
reports from WHO member states when she made her
comments on Monday.
What I was referring to yesterday in the press
conference were very few studies -- some two or
three studies that had been published that
actually try to follow asymptomatic cases, so
people who are infected, over time, and then
look at all of their contacts and see how many
additional people were infected," Van Kerkhove
said.
"And that's a very small subset of studies. So I
was responding to a question at the press
conference. I wasn't stating a policy of WHO or
anything like that," she said. "Because this is
a major unknown, because there are so many
unknowns around this, some modeling groups have
tried to estimate what is the proportion of
asymptomatic people that may transmit."
Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO
Health Emergencies Program, also said during the
live Q&A that there is still much to learn about
the possible asymptomatic spread of the
coronavirus.
"Whatever proportion of disease is transmitting
from asymptomatic individuals, as Maria said,
that is unknown," Ryan said.
"I'm absolutely convinced that that is
occurring. The question is how much," he said.
"There's much to be answered on this. There's
much that is unknown."
Whether someone is presymptomatic or simply
experiencing very mild symptoms is not of
importance to the person on the receiving end of
the transmission, said Dr. William Schaffner, a
Vanderbilt University professor and longtime
adviser to the CDC.
"I thought they were getting very prissy and
trying to slice the salami very fine," Schaffner
said about WHO's comments on Monday on
asymptomatic spread.
"You can be vertical and feel 100% or virtually
100% and going about your daily business and
unaware that you're infected and perfectly
capable transmitting the virus," Schaffner said.
"How do we inhibit transmission of the virus by
these people who are doing their full range of
normal activities? The answer is social
distancing and wearing masks and good hand
hygiene and stay away from crowds. That's the
formula."
Liam Smeeth, professor of clinical epidemiology
at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, said that he was "quite surprised" by
Van Kerkhove's original comments.
"It goes against my impressions from the science
so far that suggest asymptomatic (people who
never get symptoms) and pre-symptomatic people
are an important source of infection to others,"
Smeeth said In a written statement
distributed by the UK-based Science Media Centre on
Tuesday.
"This is the main basis for steps such as
self-isolation and lockdown -- steps we know,
from yesterday's two Nature papers have
massively reduced the numbers of people infected
and have prevented millions of deaths globally,"
he said. He was referring to research that
estimates shutdown measures through early April prevented
more than 500 million coronavirus infections across
six countries.
"There remains scientific uncertainty, but
asymptomatic infection could be around 30% to
50% of cases," Smeeth said. "The best scientific
studies to date suggest that up to half of cases
became infected from asymptomatic or
pre-symptomatic people."
Anti-Microbial Coating Could be Effective for
Ninety Days
A specially formulated antimicrobial coating can
keep surfaces clear of a human coronavirus for
up to 90 days with just one application, a
preliminary study said recently suggesting a new
line of defense against COVID-19.
The paper by researchers at the University of
Arizona (UA), which has not yet been
peer-reviewed, found that the amount of virus on
coated surfaces reduced by 90 percent in 10
minutes and by 99.9 percent in two hours.
Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at UA who was
the study's senior author, said the technology
was "the next advancement in infection control."
"I think it's mostly important for high-use
surfaces like subways and buses, because you
could disinfect them but then the next people
that come in there will recontaminate the
surfaces," he said.
"It's not a substitute for regular cleaning and
disinfecting, but it covers you in between
regular disinfecting and cleaning."
The UA team tested a coating specifically
designed to act against viruses that was
developed by the company Allied BioScience,
which also funded their study.
The researchers carried out their testing on
human coronavirus 229E, which is similar in
structure and genetics to SARS-CoV-2 but causes
only mild cold symptoms and was therefore safer
to use.
The coating works by "denaturing" the virus'
proteins -- effectively twisting them out of
shape -- and attacking its protective layer of
fat.
The colorless substance is sprayed on surfaces
and has to be reapplied every three to four
months.
The technology behind so-called
self-disinfecting coatings has been around for
almost a decade and has previously been used in
hospitals to fight against the spread of
infection, including against
antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
A 2019 paper by UA researchers found that
coatings reduced hospital-acquired infections by
36 percent.
Gerba said that as a university professor, he
and colleagues had been discussing ways to make
their environment safer for students when they
return from lockdowns, and antimicrobial
coatings on door handles and table tops would be
useful.
"There's a lot of them being developed right
now, but hopefully when we start opening
everything, they'll be ready." |