Mondanock Non-Wovens has reported an increase in demand for its nonwoven materials for medical face masks. News about H1N1, commonly known as human swine flu virus, and the approaching flu season adds to the urgency to provide low cost and effective barrier filtration to prevent or delay the spread of flu-like illnesses.

Monadnock has aligned a portfolio of air filtration media with various weights of polypropylene non-woven from 10 grams per square foot to 36 grams per square foot with exceptionally low air resistance to meet the global challenge.

Monadnock Non-Wovens LLC of Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania has a firmly established surgical face mask business supplying qualified roll goods to converters and producers of medical face masks for the dental and hospital markets. The key is to produce consistent media with a suitable combination of filtration and breathability that is easy to process and convert into a variety of face mask configurations.

A standard test is the Bacterial Filtration Efficiency test (BFE). In combination with other non-wovens, these products meet the F 1862 standard for low, moderate and high resistance to synthetic blood penetration and particle retention, typically 95%, 99%, or better than 99% efficiency.

Monadnock uses NIOSH Respirator Test Protocols to qualify the media including critical solid particle challenges. Products made with Monadnock’s face mask media meet the most rigorous BFE requirements. Monadnock is an active member of the ASTM (American Society of Testing Methods) F23 committee.

The Monadnock range of medical face mask media has been developed over 10 years and now includes a family of roll goods to meet most market requirements including the fast growing consumer or home market. New machinery was developed and installed in 2008 to improve quality and boost capacity by 50% to help meet the growing market demand.

Monadnock Non-Wovens, a subsidiary of Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc. of Bennington, New Hampshire was established in 1999 to manufacture non-woven material for the fast-growing filtration, medical face mask, and healthcare and homeland security markets.