Low cost centrifugal melt spinning for distributed manufacturing of non-woven media.

ABSTRACT: Centralized manufacturing and global supply chains have emerged as an efficient strategy for large-scale production of goods throughout the 20th century. However, while this system of production is highly efficient, it is not resilient. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen numerous supply chains fail to adapt to sudden changes in supply and demand, including those for goods critical to the pandemic response such as personal protective equipment. Here, we consider the production of the non-woven polypropylene filtration media used in face filtering respirators (FFRs). The FFR supply chain's reliance on non-woven media sourced from large, centralized manufacturing facilities led to a supply chain failure. In this study, we present an alternative manufacturing strategy that allows us to move toward

SUBMITTER: Molina A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9017944 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature