Most of the personal protective equipment
(PPE) production lines, particularly including those for surgical masks and
respirators, are located in China. Even though European countries have set their
self-sufficient strategy and installed production capacity as soon as possible,
there has still been a shortage of PPE supply in Europe.
Therefore, Europe is expected to still rely
on the import of PPE in the coming year. Nevertheless, innovative solutions are being
developed for high-speed production and packaging.
In the recent webinar focusing on the
topic of production and packaging technologies for respiratory protection
masks, member companies of VDMA Textile Machinery Association shared their latest solutions and market development regarding the above situation.
Material
and technology the major challenges
According to ANDRITZ Küsters GmbH,
production of face masks was not so meaningful in Europe in the pre-COVID time,
but now the market has changed. Global production of surgical face masks and
respirators raised 10 folds within a year, from 10 billion units in 2019 to 130
billion units by the end of 2020.
In February 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, mass volume of face mask supply was needed immediately. And
ANDRITZ contributed to filling the void in 15 weeks, with its new sources
for meltblown and new earloop elastics, as well as its new fully automatic and
high-speed machines for face mask and respirator productions.
Looking back to the issue, Dr Kerstin
Grönke, Technical Product Management at Andritz Küsters, said, “Face mask is a
mature product with the requirements clearly defined and standardized.
Three-layer structure with PP spunbond for inner and outer layers, and PP
meltblown for infiltration layer. But due to the tense situation, sourcing of
meltblown capacity and other materials such as earloop elastics has posed a
challenge.”
Dr. Grönke added that, another challenge is the
development of technological and innovative solutions for high speed
application so as to raise the production capacity of face masks in Europe. “It
is a highly dynamic development process, which really requires our holistic
view on material and nonwoven technologies.”
Optimized
machines for face mask manufacturing and packaging
On the other hand, SCHOTT & MEISSNER
Maschinen-& Anlagenbau, a global supplier of machine building for
nonwovens, introduced its made in Germany face mask production line for FFP,
N95 and KN95 models. It can produce foldable face masks up to 6 layers
of nonwoven filter material like spunbond and meltblown.
The production line fulfills all necessary EU safety
requirements (machine directive 2006/42/EG "CE label"). Its machine
features include long lasting ultrasonic welding unit, availability of machine
enclosure upgrading to clean room conditions, and highly durable parts from
German manufacturers.
Apart from face mask production, face mask
packaging was also discussed in the webinar. Hugo Beck, a manufacturer of the packaging
segment for flow packs, bags and shrink packs worldwide, explained different
packaging styles for masks.
For example, flow pack for airtight
packaging with stable seals is usually in small stacks for about 10 pieces of
FFP-masks or surgical masks. It can be infeeding manually or automatically from
pre-arranged line.
Meanwhile, shrink bag for bundle packaging with nice and small seals and non-airtight is
in stack with bigger amounts for FFP-masks or surgical masks. It can also be
shrinking for better looking and smaller bags.