The inner and outer layers of medical masks are only supporting functions. The most important thing to filter viruses is the melt blown cloth in the middle. The filtration efficiency of ordinary melt blown cloth is 50%. It needs to be processed to increase electrostatic adsorption to achieve more than 99% bacterial filtration (abbreviated as BFE99)

Melt blown cloth with a filtration efficiency of 50% can only be used as civil protective masks, which can only prevent dust and dust, and cannot isolate viruses. However, all medical masks and surgical masks must use melt blown cloth with a filtration efficiency of 99%.

In the chain of medical masks, meltblown cloth(PP 25 gsm Company), special materials for meltblown cloth, and raw materials, special materials are the most important link.

The main raw material for the production of special materials for meltblown cloth is Polypropylene, and the material supply mainly comes from Sinopec. According to public reports, both Sinopec and PetroChina urgently adjusted their production facilities to produce medical polyolefins to meet the demand for non-woven polypropylene fiber special materials(PP Meltblown Nonwoven Wholesale), medical polypropylene special materials and other medical materials.

Current status of melt blown cloth(Meltblown BFE Factory):

Meltblown cloth companies and meltblown cloth special materials companies are facing problems such as shortage of production lines, high production requirements, and long equipment procurement cycles. The production capacity is far from meeting market demand, resulting in an imbalance between supply and demand. Some mask factories have machines and workers, but lack Melt blown cloth.

As the core material of masks for filtering germs, melt blown cloth has skyrocketed from 20,000/ton to 200,000-300,000/ton in just one month. Melt blown cloth (price) has increased by 10 times, but it is at a “high price”. Still "a piece of cloth is hard to find."

Why is meltblown cloth in short supply?

Because of the long procurement cycle of key parts and components, melt blown cloth equipment is difficult to deliver in a short period of time, so it is difficult for the production of melt blown cloth to surge in a short period of time. This is becoming a "stuck neck" link in the production of masks.

At present, there are many non-woven fabric factories in China, but due to the low profit and high technical requirements of special meltblown fabrics, they belong to a niche field. There are very few manufacturers, and basically only a few large enterprises can survive.