NIT, company tie up to make 3 lakh affordable face masks

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 19

Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT) has tied up with a Ghaziabad-based company for the manufacturing of three lakh face masks in the next three months.

For making cost-effective face masks under the brand name ‘Easy BreatheTM’ for community use, the technology has been transferred to Singla Engravures Private Limited, Ghaziabad, and Meditex Industries Private Limited (a start-up under Dr BR Ambedkar NIT, Jalandhar, Technology Business Incubator). A meeting for the same was held between director LK Awasthi and representatives of the company, inventors and dean research and consultancy professor SK Sinha. Last week, the NIT Jalandhar, transferred the technology to Air Purifier.

Prof Awasthi congratulated Prof Vinay Midha and Professor A Mukhopadhyay on their achievement and said the development was one of the several steps, in which NIT Jalandhar is taking to act as a responsible institute and contribute against Covid-19.

“The shape of the mask is similar to N95, which gives sufficient space for talking and breathing easily. The researchers have focused on the breathing aspect of the facemask. As the filtration efficiency of the facemask increases, the breathing becomes difficult. N95 masks, which meet the stringent requirements for protection against bacteria, are poor in breathing and are actually meant for doctors and healthcare professionals, who are exposed to different type of fluids at high pressures during various operations in the hospital. The masses are not working under similar conditions and therefore do not require the N95 masks”, said the researchers.

At present there is no standard specification for the community mask. The common cloth masks and handkerchief being used by people actually do not provide any protection. The researchers have tried to optimise between the protection level against bacteria and breathing resistance of the masks, so that it can be worn by masses for a longer period of time. The institute has applied for a patent for the developed face mask.