Coronavirus Technology Solutions
April 15, 2020
Chinese Production of Masks Accelerating Rapidly
Upstream Materials:
Non-Woven Fabrics
Robot Measures PM 2.5 and Other Pollutants
Throughout the
Hospital
Foot Sanitizers Can Prevent Virus Spread
Sindat Now Producing Efficient Masks with
Replaceable Membrane
Essity is Targeting 30 Million Masks per Month
Aerosol
Transmission is a Mode of Transmission for
COVID-19
Germs Killed by Mask
KAIST Nanofiber Membrane Masks Withstand Twenty
Washings
Repsilon Mask with Nanofibers with Better
Breathability
Nanofibers Could be the Key Elements for Filter
Materials in Face Masks or Respirators.
HVAC Systems
Transmit Virus
______________________________________________________________________________
Chinese Production of Masks Accelerating Rapidly
After a severe shortage of surgical masks and
N95 respirators during its own COVID-19 crisis,
China is now churning out face masks like
printing money says
Chiu-Ti Jansen,
the founder of China Happenings multimedia
platform. With the coronavirus sweeping
through Europe and the United States, every
Chinese person wants to sell you face masks.
By
one account, more than 12,000 new Chinese mask
production companies sprouted up in the wake of
the global pandemic.
As
work gradually resumes in China, Chinese
consumer industries brace themselves for
dwindling demands and cancelled orders
worldwide. Face mask production has attracted
the latest inflow of speculative capital.
Consequently, stock markets have staged
impressive "face mask rally".
A
large number of companies and capital
investments drove China's mask production to
reach 116 million daily by the end of February,
and the momentum continues. In Fujian
Province alone, the output increased from 10
million at the end of February to 21.19 million
in less than 20 days.
The
math is simple: each medical mask costs 0.6-0.7
yuan to produce and the wholesale price goes for
1.6 yuan, resulting in a profit margin of 1 yuan
apiece. One production line can make nearly
40,000 yuan (about $5,634) a day. If you run
five production lines, you can earn 200,000 yuan
(about $28,000) and recoup your investment of 3
million yuan in about 20 days.
In
China and South Korea, doctors treating COVID-19
typically wear full-body hazmat jumpsuits and
N95 masks. U.S. medical personnel, by contrast,
are often left to treat highly infectious
patients in standard cloth gowns and surgical
masks.
As
of March 28, the Czech Republic and
neighboring Slovakia were the only two countries
in Europe to impose mandatory mask-wearing. The
mandates have been credited for significantly
slowing down the spread of the virus. In Asia
where countries and regions, smarting from the
SARS experience, from China, Japan, Korea, Hong
Kong to Taiwan, wearing masks are part and
parcel of the combat strategies against the
coronavirus, especially when 25% to 50% of
infected population could be asymptomatic while
contagious.
As
the demand for medical supplies surges while
other consumer clothing lines slow, many Chinese
textile and apparel companies have switched to
producing protective garments. From February 1
to March 5, China added a total of 826 new
companies with "protective garments" in their
business scope. Compared with the same period of
last year, the growth rate of protective
clothing companies was 2,565%.
According to the China Garment Association, due
to the shifting business lines of many garment
factories, the production capacity of domestic
protective clothing is increasing, reaching
about 975,000 pieces per day.
Popular stocks in the mask and PPE sector
include Shangrong Medical (002551; production of
protective clothing); KraussMaffei Group
(600579; a subsidiary of ChemChina with a full
set of technology for the production of medical
melt-blown polypropylene, 90% market share);
Souyute Group (002503, R&D and production of
medical masks and protective garments); Gon
Technology (002768, mask melt-blown
polypropylene technology); Zisun Technology
(603601; N95 / N99 production line), Shandong
Dawn Polymer (002838; polypropylene melt-blown
material); and Nanjing Julong (300644;
melt-blown polypropylene technology).
The
high-flying mask and PPE rally in China, started
during China's own virus crisis, does not always
stand on steady legs. KraussMaffei's stock fell
to earth from its recent high at ¥9.81,
resulting in a paltry 2% year-to-date
appreciation as of April 2. At its high on
March 10, Nanjing Julong staged a 43% pop from
January 1, but it closed at ¥32.75 with a modest
10% YTD return.
Jihua Group (601718), a company dominating
China's military uniform market, quickly
switched to production of protective gear after
the epidemic. As of March 1, the company
produced 140,000 medical grade protective suits,
accounting for 40% of China's output. With
a foothold in Italy, Jihua is the only listed
company in the A-share market selling protective
garments and masks in Italy. After shooting up
36% from the beginning of the year to March 6,
Jihua's stock closed on April 2 with a 15% pop
year-to-date.
On
the other side of the spectrum, Dawn Polymer has
generated a 253% YTD return despite a recent
retreat from its high on March 10. Similarly,
Gon Technology took home a 48% YTD return, only
slightly off the 52% appreciation that it hit on
March 12. Generally the upstream material makers
appear to have a longer tail in stock rally than
downstream makers of masks and protective
garments.
Upstream Materials:
Non-Woven Fabrics
Generally the structure of a non-woven face mask
consists of three parts: an outer layer made
of polypropylene spun bond non-woven fabric;
polypropylene melt-blown non-woven fabric and
active carbon non-woven fabric are used as a
filter in the interlayer; and the inner layer is
made of polypropylene spun bond non-woven
fabric.
The
dislocation of the mask market has also created
a surge in demand for the polymer-based fabrics
used in the protective coverings. Competition
for polypropylene melt-blown material,
reflecting the technical threshold and
production process requirements, has led to the
soaring price.
One
ton of melt-blown cloth has soared by more than
400,000 yuan (about 56,000 US dollars), compared
with only 20,000 yuan before the crisis, a
20-fold increase.
With an estimated market share of 40% for the
specialty fabrics used in masks in China, shares
in Shenzhen-listed Dawn Polymer soared by 417%
in the six weeks following January 20, when the
Chinese were alerted to the person-to-person
transmission of the virus, sending the net worth
of its founder Yu Xiaoning and his wife to Rmb
16.8 billion yuan (about $2.38 billion), at
least on paper.
Medical grade non-woven makers such as Jiangnan
High Fiber (600527), Xinlong Holdings (000955),
Jihua Group (601718), Huamao (000850) and Mida
(000782) have also enjoyed the ride. In
addition, Sinopec (NYSE: SNP; 0386.HK;
600028.SH), one of China's leading petroleum and
petrochemical companies, indicated on February
25 that it would invest in 10 melt-blown cloth
production lines.
Minsheng Securities' recent research report
estimates that to support a work resumption rate
at 70%, based on one mask per person per day,
China would need 390 million masks per day. As
the domestic outbreak came under control,
overseas demands could give the mask rally a
second wind,
Many industry players believe that the current
demands in Europe and the United States are
accelerating, and China can still export a
meaningful amount after meeting its own
needs. But once the global epidemic situation
improves in the next few months, the surge in
production capacity could lead to a huge
surplus, and many companies will face the risk
of failure.
In
addition, quality issues abound as Chinese
companies tried to flood the global market with
face masks. The Netherlands recently imported
1.3 million FFP2 masks (equivalent to the N95
specification) from China, of which 600,000 were
found defective, forcing the government to
urgently recall them after distributions.
Reportedly these masks not only failed the FFP2
criteria, but also the less stringent FFP1
standard.
Robot Measures PM 2.5 and Other Pollutants
Throughout the
Hospital
In
Hong Kong, 687 miles from Wuhan, robot Temi is
the star of Hong Kong Children Hospital, Queen
Elizabeth Hospital, Yan Chai Group, Sheng Kung
Hui Group, and more than 50 nursing homes.
Families restricted from visiting their parents
during the epidemic rely on Temi to physically
move to the elders' bedside and initiate a video
conference.
Roy
Lim, Vice President of Tung Hing Automation that
invests in Temi and distributes the bots in Hong
Kong and China, told CapitalWatch that sales
have spiked since January. Armed with a
touchscreen, Alexa technology, a built-in sound
system and a tray for phone charges, Temi takes
the temperature of visitors at the entrance of a
senior center or a hospital and patrols in order
to locate random people and measure their
temperatures. Upon sensing an "object" reaching
38 Celsius or more, Temi will snap a picture and
email it to the nurse. As one of Time
Magazine's 100 Best Inventions of 2019, Temi is
the creation of Robotemi, an Israeli company
headquartered in New York with a manufacturing
base in Shenzhen.
At
a cost-effective price of $1,999 per unit, Temi
relies on an in-house
multi-layer LIDAR technology that would cost
competitors (e.g., Pudubot, Yunji's Run) $7,000
per bot to procure from German or American
producers. Temi's open Android SDK system also
allows customers to customize with additional
applications and connected sensors.
For
example, with merely a set of Indoor Air Quality
sensors attached, Temi can monitor the entire
hospital's PM2.5, carbon dioxide, formaldehyde,
temperature, humidity and even smoke particles
in every room and report them in real-time to
facility management.
During the current virus crisis, Shenzhen-based
Broadcare dispatched its robots that administer
configured intravenous injections to facilitate
chemotherapy, including cutting ampoules,
opening vials, shaking, disinfection, suction,
injection and other operations. These robots
are also taking care of air purification,
temperature control, and waste recycling and
disposal. This reduces the risk of occupational
injuries when medical personnel's movements are
restricted by heavy protective gear.
But
Zhang Jianwei, Professor of the Department of
Informatics at the University of Hamburg and the
world's leading expert on robotics, says
that
currently the levels of robots' senses,
movements, endurance, and flexibility are not
sophisticated enough to support complex tasks
such as intubation or modified rapid sequence
induction which poses high infection risk to
medical professionals.
Foot Sanitizers Can Prevent Virus Spread
A small study from China indicates that the coronavirus can
be found in the air up to 13 feet from patients
in a hospital. The virus was also found to
linger on hospital staffers’ shoes and may be
spread by walking in contaminated shoes.
“The aerosol distribution characteristics …
indicate that the transmission distance of
[COVID-19] might be 4 m (more than 13 feet),”
the report says. Testing was done in areas that
held a total of 37 virus patients.
“Furthermore, half of the samples from the soles
of the ICU medical staff shoes tested positive,”
the researchers wrote of samples taken at
Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China.
“Therefore, the soles of medical staff shoes
might function as carriers.”
High levels of the virus were also found
on frequently touched surfaces such as
trashcans, bed rails and computer mice.
The research was posted online in the CDC’s Emerging
Infectious Diseases Journal
Sindat Now Producing Efficient Masks with
Replaceable Membrane
This major Czech company has developed a
comfortable cotton mask with a replaceable
membrane with high virus capture efficiency. The
mask is washable. A package consists of a mask
and 10 membrane inserts at a price around 10
Euros. It is recommended that the membranes be
worn only once but McIlvaine contacted company
officials who agreed that with a day of limited
use the membrane could be used a second day.
The cost per wearing could therefore be
well below 1 euro.
Essity is Targeting 30 Million Masks per Month
Hygiene and health company Essity has commenced
production in Sweden of surgical masks for use
by healthcare providers. The development has
been in close dialogue with the Swedish
government and the National Board of Health and
Welfare. The aim is to deliver the first masks
within the next few weeks.
The
Swedish production facility has the capacity to
produce three million masks a month. Essity has
also purchased a machine for large-scale
production of surgical masks which has a
production capacity of 30 million masks a month.
The machine is expected to be operational after
the summer. Preparations to manufacture face
masks are also under way at several of the
Group’s plants in other countries.
Aerosol
Transmission is a Mode of Transmission for
COVID-19
Results
indicate that aerosol transmission is a
potential mode of transmission for coronaviruses
as well as influenza viruses and rhinoviruses.
Published studies detected respiratory
viruses such as influenza and rhinovirus from
exhaled breath, and the detection of
SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV from air samples (without
size fractionation) collected from hospitals
treating patients with severe acute respiratory
syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome,
but ours demonstrates detection of human
seasonal coronaviruses in exhaled breath,
including the detection of OC43 and HKU1 from
respiratory droplets and NL63, OC43 and HKU1
from aerosols.
Findings indicate that surgical masks can
efficaciously reduce the emission of influenza
virus particles into the environment in
respiratory droplets, but not in aerosols.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0843-2
Germs Killed by Mask
Pintler
Medical LLC claims to have created a mask that
kills the germs with which it comes into
contact,
reports Fox
10 Phoenix.
It takes
quite the process for Pinter's masks to be ready
to destroy germs. The masks are made with a
cotton twill that is transformed to a
polypyrrole after a 13-hour process.
Since polypyrrole is anti-microbial and
anti-bacterial, these masks will kill germs and
viruses exhaled by the person wearing them. The
masks are rather sustainable, as they can be
washed and reused without sacrifice to the
fabric's germ-killing capabilities.
The masks are being sold for $35 a piece at
Summit Male Medical in Tempe, Arizona. Since
sales began, the business has sold out of the
masks at least once, but hopes to get more masks
in stock each week
KAIST Nanofiber Membrane Masks Withstand Twenty
Washings
Engineers at KAIST, one of South Korea’s finest
technology institutes, have now developed a
washable filtering material that can be used
within face masks. It can withstand at least
twenty hand-cleaning cycles without losing its
ability to trap fine dust particles. The
material, placed on appropriately designed face
masks with sturdy frames, lets the entire device
maintain its original shape through the washes.
According to the KAIST researchers, in their
tests the mask could continue filtering up to
80% of 600 nanometer-wide particles even after
4,000 bends. Once the mask has been washed
enough times to start losing its filtration
qualities, the filter material can be swapped
out for a new sheet without having to throw out
the rest of the mask.
Within the material are nanofibers, with a
diameter of between 100 and 500 nanometers, that
are arranged perpendicularly to each other via a
novel insulation block electrospinning process.
This creates a fine mesh that lets air through
while blocking very fine particles. Moreover,
the material is highly water resistant and so
dries out quickly before being used again.
Repsilon Mask with Nanofibers with Better
Breathability
Respilon®
Professional Halfmask provides ultimate
protection against viruses, bacteria, dust,
smog, emissions and other airborne particles
thanks to a special designed filtration layers
using nanofibers.
The nanofiber filtration layer in the R-mask, is
the highest dense filter on the market but still
provides 3x better breathability and 5x higher
filtration efficiency then the normally
required. And that is why R-mask is efficient
but comfortable to use at the same time.
https://www.respilon.com/products/professional-halfmask/home/
Nanofibers Could be the Key Elements for Filter
Materials in Face Masks or Respirators.
Nanofibers have a very high surface area per
unit mass that enhances capture efficiency and
other surface area-dependent phenomena that may
be engineered into the fiber surfaces (such as
catalysis or ion exchange). They could enhance
filter performance for capture of naturally
occurring nanoparticles such as viruses, as well
as micron-sized particles such as bacteria or
man-made particles such as soot from diesel
exhaust.
Nanofiber media significantly reduced mask
airflow resistance and resulted in more of the
exhaled air from the manikin passing through the
face mask as opposed to by passing the filter
and going around the edges
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/460/1/012013
HVAC Systems Transmit Virus
Scientists believe opening windows in buildings,
including our homes, may prevent the spread of
the coronavirus,
Experts in health, the built environment and
microbiology at the University of Oregon and the
University of California, Davis, made the
recommendations by reviewing existing studies on
germs including SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which
causes COVID-19 disease).
The humidity of a building, the team said, may
also affect the spread of infections
like COVID-19. The limited data available on
SARS-CoV-2 indicates it is active longest on
plastic surfaces at a relative humidity of 40
percent, with an average half-life of 15.9
hours, and shortest in aerosol form with an
average half-life of 2.74 hours with a relative
humidity of 65 percent.
This is supported by evidence suggesting
viruses, including coronaviruses, struggle to
survive in typical indoor temperatures and at a
relative humidity of above 40 percent.
Targeted in-room humidification could therefore
be considered as a means for preventing
COVID-19, while remembering that humidity above
80 percent could create its own health problems,
the team advised.
Considering the potential use of air filtration
systems, the authors found the majority of
viruses, including coronavirus, are too small to
capture bugs like SARS-CoV-2 and "no filter
system is perfect."
Those with air delivery systems should take care
not to recirculate indoor air which "could
potentially increase the transmission
potential." Boosting airflow rates could
meanwhile risk sending germs into the air from
surfaces and "increase the potential for
contamination throughout the building by
distributing indoor air more quickly, at higher
velocities and volumes, potentially resuspending more ultrafine particles."
Keeping air filters properly installed and
maintained could help to minimize the spread of
SARS-CoV-2, according to the team who stressed
"it is important to understand that filters
should not be assumed to eliminate airborne
transmission risk."
They also looked at data on other members of the
large coronavirus family of bugs which trigger
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). They
published their findings in the journal mSystems.
