MARLBOROUGH, Mass. — March 19, 2020 — Web Industries Inc., a precision converter and contract manufacturing organization (CMO), is prepared to develop nonwoven and material converting solutions and is offering production capacity to support the manufacture of disposable medical products for the COVID-19 crisis. Converting is an important step in the supply chain in which materials are formatted so that they can be run more efficiently on automated manufacturing lines.

Certified under ISO 14001 and ISO 9001, Web has multi-color, high-speed printing, slitting and traverse winding, or spooling, lines at its factory in Fort Wayne, Ind., the company’s Center of Excellence for converting personal and home care products. The recently expanded facility has state-of-the-art equipment for converting nonwoven materials. Web’s team is available to discuss how it can support manufacturers of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other medical consumables. Most disposable PPE products, such as surgical masks and protective gowns, are made of nonwoven materials.

Currently, Web converts ties and bindings for surgical masks at the Fort Wayne facility, which predominantly processes nonwoven materials for diapers and other personal and home care products.

“We are available to discuss how we can use our converting lines and expertise to help manufacturers meet demand for disposable medical products needed for the COVID-19 response,” said Adrienne Green, director of sales, personal and home care. “Our engineers are skilled at devising solutions for working with a wide variety of materials and converting them into formats that can be efficiently and seamlessly integrated into the end-product manufacturer’s operations.”

Web Industries is a domestic production source for all its business sectors, which include Medical, Aerospace, Personal & Home Care, and Industrial.

Posted March 19, 2020

Source: Web Industries Inc.

LUBBOCK, Texas — March 18, 2020 — A decontamination wipe invented by a Texas Tech University researcher to clean up toxic agents also could clean up bodily fluids contaminated with the coronavirus.

FiberTect^™ is a three-layer, nonwoven wipe that features an activated carbon core sandwiched between absorbent top and bottom layers.

“It is widely used as the primary dry decontamination method in hospitals and ambulances,” said Corey Collings, a training specialist for First Line Technology, which markets FiberTect. “Hospitals use it in bulk and in rolls, and ambulances use it in a kit called the FastGrab to do immediate decontamination of patients contaminated with a wide variety of substances.”

FiberTect was invented by Seshadri Ramkumar, a professor of chemical countermeasures and advanced materials in the Texas Tech Department of Environmental Toxicology. He says the wipe’s structure is effective in containing bodily fluids — like saliva and mucus — through which viruses could be transmitted. Its activated carbon also can absorb particles transmitted in vapor phase through the air.

As a wipe or mitt, FiberTect holds great potential for cleaning in settings where transmission of the COVID-19 virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, is a paramount concern.

“It can be used to clean wet surfaces contaminated with bodily fluids,” Ramkumar said. “Highly porous carbon in the structure can trap the vapors and aerosols in which microbes are contained. The wipe structure is flexible and can take the shape of the objects to be cleaned. The three-ply structure without glue helps this effective cleaning.”

FiberTect previously has been used successfully by the U.S. military to decontaminate both personnel and equipment, for oil spill cleanup during the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and by emergency response teams across the country in dealing with highly dangerous chemical substances, including Fentanyl.

“The advantage of FiberTect is that it has multiple uses,” said Amit Kapoor, president and CEO of First Line Technology. “Many departments have bought into decontamination technology solely because of the Fentanyl epidemic. However, once they have the equipment, like FiberTect, they find that it is effective at removing a broad range of dangerous substances. Some examples include OC spray, bodily fluids, acids and other unknown materials. Because it is so easy to store and use, it has gained widespread acceptance among public safety agencies.”

Its development and testing was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and managed by the Technical Support Working Group, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict in the U.S. Department of Defense. Product testing was conducted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. FiberTectproved superior in all testing results against 30 comparable products for decontaminating against toxic chemicals.

Posted March 18, 2020

Source: Texas Tech University