Auckland, New Zealand-headquarterd nanofibre manufacturer Revolution Fibres has invested in new a testing machine to enhance the development and performance of its filtration media.

The Palas PMFT 1000 testing rig analyses the ability of protective face masks to filter particles, bacteria and viruses such as Covid-19.

“The machine is key to advancing the performance of our Seta nanofibre filter media product which is used in face masks that meet and exceed N95 and N99 standards,” said Revolution CEO Ray Connor. “It enables us to test the masks to ensure they meet required standards and properly protect people and health workers who are on the frontline of the pandemic in New Zealand and around the world.”

The pedigree of Palas technology speaks for itself, he adds, with its certified fine dust measurement, in the context of environmental monitoring, making the company one of the most important partners for manufacturers and suppliers when testing filters and filter media.

The investment gives Revolution the opportunity to test its filters instantly to the required international standards, as opposed to sending the material overseas to be tested. Once its products are ready to take to market, they are then sent to a third-party testing lab for certification.

“A lot of the work we do to enhance and improve our products involves increasing the capability of nanofibre filtration media,” Connor said. “As part of this, we compare the performance of our Seta product to traditional filtration media using the machine as it provides us with incredibly specific data and results.”

The machine has played an instrumental role in the advancement of Revolution’s new filter media with added functionality, including anti-microbial properties.  

Dr Gareth Beckermann, technical manager at Revolution, says the diameters of the nanofibre ranges from 10-300 nanometres, which is 10-100 times smaller than conventional melt-blown microfibres, meaning they are very effective in protecting against viruses such as COVID, bacteria and other toxic particles.

“It means nanofibre filter media are very effective at protecting against viruses such as Covid, bacteria and other toxic particles which can be just 100 nanometres. Our nanofibre filter media can trap 99% of microscopic particles such as spores, allergens, and bacteria.”

Revolution Fibres supplies filtration media to multiple overseas face mask manufacturers, such as Halo in the US, as well as filters for HVAC systems.

Using a proprietary electrospinning process Revolution Fibres creates nanofibre rolls in lengths of hundreds of metres long and tens of thousands of square metres for export to markets such as Asia, Australia and the USA.

www.revolutionfibres.com