NEWS BRIEFS Non Woven Fabrics for Medical Textiles in World Emergency By Deepak Agrawal Director, Sparkle Texfab Pvt Ltd Many health experts believe that the new strain of corona virus (COVID-19) likely originated in bats or pangolins. The first transmission to humans was in Wuhan, China. Since then, the virus has mostly spread through person-to-person contact. The Corona virus now has found its way to India and all around the World. While the world continues to find a cure for this deadly disease, Corona-19 virus outbreak has caused serious damage to human life all around the world. This is very critical condition in healthcare in every country. The risk of getting the corona virus from patients is pushing doctors to ask for better-quality protective gear, and adequate supply.
and viruses. They are considered the gold standard of respirator masks but are in short supply.
World has to Meet the Demand of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to Fight From the Corona Virus (COVID-19) For everyone, PPE has become life saving jacket. So let’s have some idea how Non woven fabrics are playing a major role for making PPE and helping us to fight against COVID-19. PPE cost in India is very high and every doctor has to use it compulsorily while attending to a COVID-19 patient. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) includes protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garment. Protective equipment may be worn for job-related occupational safety and PPE suits can be similar in appearance to a clean room suit. For this reason nonwoven fabrics have emerged rapidly as the fabrics of the future. There is a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) all over world. N95 masks are able to filter out at least 95% of very small (0.3 micron) particles from the air, including bacteria
throughout the fabric. Multiple layers can be combined to achieve desired strength, elongation and other mechanical properties. Porosity can be controlled by varying fiber diameter, fiber density, fiber orientation and additional mechanical processing. Nonwoven fabrics are used in medical field for surgical gowns, face masks, caps, pillow covers and bed spreads.
Non-woven materials are used in numerous applications, including: Nonwovens are used in various fields. Because of their low price they are often used in disposable products. Nonwoven fabric is a fabric-like material made from man made staple fiber (short) and long fibers (continuous long), bonded together by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent treatment. Also, nonwovens may be a limited-life, single-use fabric or a very durable fabric. Fabric broadly defined as a sheet or web structure bonded together by entangling medical fibers or filaments (and by perforating films) mechanically, thermally or chemically. They are flat, porous sheets made directly from separate fibers or from molten plastic or plastic film. The fibers in a non-woven fabric may be oriented in one direction or randomly NCM-APRIL 2020 85
Medical Sector • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Isolation gowns surgical gowns surgical drapes and covers surgical masks surgical scrub suits caps medical packaging: porosity allows gas sterilization gloves shoe covers bath wipes wound dressings drug delivery plasters
The Coronavirus outbreak has caused a sudden surge in the global demand for surgical personal protective equipment.