protective clothing suits|Medical protective clothing in COVID-19's prevention and control

Reading guide

Medical protective clothing refers to the protective clothing used by medical personnel and people entering specific medical and health areas. In 2020, the manufacturers of protective clothing and masks will be placed at the air outlet in an instant, and the garment factories will switch to protective clothing to support the front line with practical actions to combat the epidemic.

01

Development history of medical protective clothing industry

It is generally believed that medical protective clothing originated from surgical clothing. At that time, doctors wore protective clothing to protect their clothes from blood or secretions. After the 1980s, human beings realized that there was a risk of infection in the treatment of patients by medical staff, and countries began to focus on the development of medical protective clothing.

In 2003, in the process of fighting against SARS, there were many cases of infection of medical staff. Then, China issued the technical requirements for medical disposable protective clothing GB19082-2003. According to the national industrial structure adjustment catalogue, protective clothing belongs to the industry of public safety and emergency supplies, which is protective clothing to protect human beings from all kinds of injuries.

(function of medical protective clothing) the concept of medical protective clothing generally refers to the protective clothing used by medical personnel (doctors, nurses, public health personnel, cleaners, etc.) and people entering specific medical and health areas (such as patients, hospital visitors, personnel entering infected areas, etc.).

(all kinds of clothes worn by medical personnel in medical environment) according to the new classification catalogue of medical devices, "protective articles for medical personnel" are included in the category of protective functional devices, corresponding to the inspection gloves and finger covers in the general medical products in the subdirectory of 6866 medical polymer materials and products in the classification catalogue of 2002 edition.

(source: State Food and Drug Administration)

Medical polymer materials and products are subordinate to low-value medical consumables.

02

Medical protective clothing industry chain

The industrial chain of medical protective clothing is divided into three links. The upstream of the industrial chain is mainly polypropylene (PP), polyester and other raw materials; The middle and upper reaches industries include PP non-woven fabric, melt blown fabric, flat sewing machine, overlock sewing machine and other production equipment; Midstream is the manufacturer of medical protective clothing; Downstream involves various circulation channels of medical protective clothing, including wholesalers and retailers, hospitals and pharmacies, e-commerce platforms, etc.

(medical protective clothing industry chain) medical protective clothing industry chain: upstream basic raw material - polypropylene fiber supplier. From the perspective of upstream raw material suppliers, the main market share of China's polypropylene industry is occupied by Sinopec and PetroChina.

(industrial chain of medical protective clothing: upstream basic raw material - polypropylene fiber) in 2018, Sinopec produced about 600000 tons of polypropylene fiber, of which high melting accounted for 41%; The total amount of PetroChina is about 450000 tons, of which high melting accounts for 80%.

(output of polypropylene fiber materials of Sinopec and PetroChina) industrial chain of medical protective clothing: raw materials in the middle and upper reaches - nonwovens. In recent years, the nonwovens industry has developed rapidly in China. China has become the largest nonwovens producer and consumer in the world.

In 2018, China's total nonwoven production reached 5.9322 million tons, accounting for 37.91% of the global total nonwoven production, with a year-on-year increase of 5.73%. Among them, the output of spunbonded nonwovens accounted for the highest proportion, reaching 2.9712 million tons, followed by needle punched nonwovens, with an output of 1.362 million tons, while the output of spunbonded nonwovens was 642200 tons.

Medical protective clothing industry chain: middle and upper reaches raw materials - nonwovens (spunbonded method). At present, the main application of medical protective clothing in China is SMS Nonwovens.

In 2018, China had 1477 spunbonded nonwovens production lines, 65 more than in 2017; The total production capacity was 4.3755 million tons, an increase of 6.34% over 2017; The total output was 2.9712 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.50%. There are 1225 PP spunbonded production lines, with an output of 1988800 tons; 129 PET spunbonded production lines, with an output of 347700 tons; There are 123 online composite SMS production lines, with an output of 634700 tons. Medical protective clothing industry chain: middle and upper reaches production equipment sewing equipment. In 2018, the restorative growth trend of China's sewing machinery industry continued.

In 2018, China's 100 sewing machinery enterprises completed a total industrial output value of 20.817 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.28%; A total of 5.4414 million industrial sewing machines were produced, with a year-on-year increase of 21.49%. However, in 2019, under the background of the overall slowdown of the global economy, the continuous escalation of Sino US trade disputes and the pressure on the domestic and foreign markets, the production and sales of the industry showed a downward trend. The bottleneck of producing medical protective clothing lies in the need for special equipment such as heat sealing and glue pressing machine. Because the sewing part of protective clothing with needle holes needs to be glued with adhesive strips, which can not be permeable. Medical protective clothing industry chain: middle and upper reaches production equipment sewing equipment. The production of medical protective clothing mainly uses industrial sewing machines such as flat sewing machine, overlock sewing machine and glue pressing machine.

In 2018, China's sewing machinery industry produced about 11.5 million sets of household and industrial sewing equipment (excluding before and after sewing), a year-on-year increase of 11.6%. Among them, about 8.4 million industrial sewing machines were produced, with a year-on-year increase of 20%, reaching the highest output in recent years. In terms of the output of industrial sewing machine segments produced by 100 complete machine enterprises, both overlock sewing machines and flat sewing machines have a high growth rate.

Industrial chain of medical protective clothing: the downstream medical and health market continues to expand. In recent years, China's medical and health market is expanding. By October 2019, the number of medical and health institutions in China had reached 1010400.

In 2018, the total number of health workers in China reached 12.3 million, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. Among them, there are 9.529 million health technicians, including licensed doctors, licensed assistant doctors and registered nurses. The number of medical and health institutions and technicians is growing, and the demand for medical protective clothing has great potential.

03

Technical environment of medical protective clothing industry

The manufacturing technology of medical protective clothing involves upstream raw material process, midstream processing process and disinfection and sterilization technology before being put into downstream application. The production of medical protective clothing mainly uses flat sewing machine, wrapping sewing machine, glue pressing machine and other machines to cut, sew, tighten and glue pressing strips of nonwovens that meet the protection requirements, and after the functional finishing of "three rejections and one resistance" (water repellent, blood repellent, alcohol repellent and antistatic), they are made into medical protective clothing containing hooded jacket and pants.

The main raw materials of disposable medical protective clothing in China are SMS Nonwovens after three prevention (waterproof, blood proof and oil proof) and antistatic and antibacterial finishing. It is nonwovens made of more than two kinds of nonwovens with different properties by chemical, thermal or mechanical means, or combined with different netting processes.

The production processes of nonwovens mainly include dry netting (chemical bonding, thermal bonding, needling, Spunlaced, pulp air netting), wet netting and spinning melting (spunbonded, melt blown).

(nonwoven production process)

At present, spunbonded nonwovens are mostly used in packaging materials, sanitary materials, equipment and filter materials; Spunlaced nonwovens are widely used in medical and health materials (medical curtain, surgical clothing, surgical cover cloth, medical gauze, wet towel, facial mask, etc.). Needle punched nonwovens are mostly used for leather base cloth, geotextile and filter materials; Chemical bonded nonwovens are used for fillers and composites.

From having production capacity to putting into the market, the production of protective clothing also faces an important link: disinfection and sterilization.

At present, China's national standard medical protective clothing production mostly adopts ethylene oxide fumigation sterilization. Compared with the irradiation sterilization rate of more than 40% in foreign developed countries, only 10% of the medical supplies sterilized by irradiation technology in China.

The data show that there are 22.4894 million garment related enterprises in China, of which Guangdong Province has the largest number of garment enterprises, about 2.4279 million, accounting for 10.80% of the total national garment enterprises. Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province rank second and third with 179800 and 179700 respectively.

04

Development trend of medical protective clothing industry

According to the data forecast, the short-term demand forecast of medical protective clothing industry. On February 27, the daily output of domestic key medical protective clothing enterprises monitored and dispatched by the Ministry of industry and information technology reached 318000 pieces, 263000 pieces arrived in Hubei on the same day, 63000 pieces exceeding the demand put forward by Hubei on the same day, and more than 50000 pieces exceeding the demand put forward by Hubei for eight consecutive days.

(source: Huaxin Research Institute Huachuang securities)

According to the conservative estimation of the national daily demand for protective clothing, the market capacity of medical protective clothing in China is expected to be 5 billion yuan in the short term. From the ideal estimation of the demand for two sets of protective clothing per day for national health technicians responsible for epidemic prevention, the market capacity of medical protective clothing in China is expected to be 16 billion yuan in the short term.

Under the epidemic situation, enterprises related to "protective clothing" have sprung up. According to the data, since 2000, "protective clothing" related enterprises have fluctuated and increased. In the first three months of 2020, the new increment has reached the highest in previous years, with 979 new enterprises, exceeding the growth of the whole year of 2019.

Prediction of the development trend of medical protective clothing industry: the industry standard will be more perfect. Compared with foreign protective clothing test standards, China's disposable protective clothing test standards are relatively backward, resulting in the high-end protective clothing produced in China can only be tested by foreign authorities before being sold back to China, and the cost also rises. Therefore, China's export capacity of protective clothing is higher than that of domestic production capacity. In the future, China's medical protective clothing industry should further improve industry standards and ensure domestic supply.

At present, ethylene oxide sterilization is mostly used in the production of national standard medical protective clothing, but the biggest disadvantage is that it takes a long time to ventilate to remove residues. The whole sterilization time is long, usually 7-14 days.

The irradiation sterilization with cobalt 60 or electron accelerator has no pollution, residue and radiation source. The sterilization time can be shortened to less than 1 day, which is equivalent to the sterilization effect of traditional ethylene oxide. It can be predicted that irradiation sterilization may become the norm in the future.

It is reported that 40-50% of disposable medical supplies produced in developed countries are sterilized by irradiation. With the support of new rapid sterilization technologies and policies, irradiation sterilization of disposable medical protective clothing may become the norm from "emergency substitution" in the future, so as to promote the high-quality development of medical protective clothing industry.

reference:

【1】 China Medical Protective Clothing Industry Research Report - prospective industry research institute

【2】 After the outbreak of the epidemic, 1500 garment enterprises switched to production, and the new number of protective clothing enterprises soared by 2300% compared with the same period in previous years

【3】 I volunteered in the protective clothing workshop for 8 hours

【4】 More than 30000 pieces per day! Hongdou shares the courage to take the lead in anti epidemic protective clothing

【5】 Ministry of industry and information technology: medical protective clothing needs to enter the "wartime mode" Daily Economic News

【6】 Important news of industry and information technology 𞓜 proposal for information collection of strip pressing machine for medical protective clothing production "Ministry of industry and information technology"

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