A SME in Switzerland Launches Washable Anti-COVID-19 Mask
A Zurich company has launched in recent weeks a washable cloth mask, soaked in a solution that kills the new coronavirus.
This Swiss mask, soon to be available to the general public, is already enjoying meteoric success. The Zurich-based SME HeiQ developed a process six years ago to treat textiles so that they eliminate viruses. The mask was designed at the time to neutralize another coronavirus, 229E. The previous epidemics, SARS and H1N1, already dated from 2003 and 2009-2010 respectively.
But since then, everyone has quickly forgotten the threat of viruses and this innovation has ended up in a drawer. However, at the first indications of a new epidemic, the company revived the project. And she launched this very special mask on the market in April.
How does it look?
White in color, it is a little thicker than a conventional surgical mask. The antiviral solution is added to the fabric during the last textile manufacturing step. HeiQ has developed a process based on silver micro-composites, a solution that acts against odors by eliminating bacteria. The American sportswear giant Patagonia uses this technology, for example.
The specific anti-virus aspect was developed in Lausanne by scientist Thierry Pelet and his team from EPFL. They created an artificial vesicle (a sort of small membranous sac) formed by lipids and which attacks the envelope of the virus.
The mask was designed against coronavirus 229E, but the process is just as effective against the new coronavirus because all viruses - like those of ordinary flu, influenza - are enveloped in a membrane of the same type and which s called pericapsis.
Can you wash the masks ?
The mask gets dirty with use (when talking or sneezing) but you can put it in the washing machine like any textile. The antiviral process resists washing.
This idea is the fruit of a collaboration between the EPFZ and EPFL. "These are two complementary technologies that we have put together," said Carlo Centonze, co-founder and CEO of HeiQ, on Monday in the CQFD program. This partnership started around 2013 and the mask was ready for the market in 2014, "scientifically validated", specifies the researcher. But nobody - industry and public - was interested: "We had to decide not to invest anymore and accept that there was no market", deplores the engineer from the EPFZ.
But Carlo Centonze quickly reopened when he read the first articles on the Covid-19 - and planned to go live. The company announced the launch of these antiviral masks on March 16, when the Federal Council decreed the start of confinement in Switzerland.
Where can we buy it ?
Initially, production was reserved for professionals. Made in China, these washable masks have already been delivered to Swiss hospitals and the military. Hospitals have also received them in Great Britain, Italy and the United States. At the same time, the production of 1.6 billion pieces was launched for the American general public. In Switzerland, the marketing process has started but it is not yet known when these masks will arrive in stores.
