Do you ever wonder how a face mask works? The heart of a face mask is a melt-blown, non-woven polypropylene (PP) material which is inserted into the filter layer of a surgical mask. The fiber diameter of this PP material is only about one thirtieth of a human hair, or about 6µm. However, this in itself, does not make the masks effective. The filtration efficiency of the material can be further improved by treating it with an electrostatic field, creating what is called an “electret material”. With this added electrostatic process, the average diameter of the PP material’s fibers can be reduced ten times, resulting in diameters as fine as 600nm and filter efficiencies of over 99%. According to current evidence, the COVID-19 virus is primarily transmitted between people with small virus droplets around 5-10μm in diameter. While wearing a mask, a virus droplet is captured by the added static electricity in the electret material and is absorbed on the mask surface, making these electrostatic-assisted mask materials highly effective in preventing the virus droplet from getting past the mask.
CORONA ELECTROSTATIC TREATMENT is the process that creates this “electret material”, which is the critical filter component in face masks. The Corona Treater equipment includes a high frequency inverter power supply, special electrodes, and rollers. It works by applying a high voltage corona discharge to the material at high temperature. Materials treated with the Corona Electrostatic Treaters increases the material’s ability to retain charge for extremely long periods of time. Contact us for additional information.
