NC State Helping Make 500,000 Surgical Masks Per Day

NC State’s Nonwoven Institute is currently using two of it’s production lines to produce materials for the creation of face masks for the use of medical workers as they fight Covid-19.

According to Behnam Pourdeyhimi, executive director of NWI, Wilson College of Textiles associate dean for industry research and extension and William A. Klopman Distinguished Professor, the materials being made can create a face mask that can be cleaned and reused.

“Because of the COVID-19 crisis, we took the spunbond technology and created a new generation of unique filters that have excellent filtering capability and can potentially be reused after cleaning with peroxide, or potentially alcohol solution,” Pourdeyhimi said. “Because these materials are strong, unlike classical meltblown filters, they can also be cut and sewn by traditional techniques.” (NCSU)

Currently, NC State is roughly able to create material for roughly 500,000 surgical face masks per day.

Within the next month when new machinery arrives, NC State will be able to create the actual face masks on their Centennial Campus, to provide to local medical workers.