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Pune Startup Develops 'Virucidal Masks' That Kill Coronavirus
Writer: Nishit Navin
I have lived in 7 cities across India. I completed my graduation with a triple major in English, Journalism, and animation. Currently, I am doing my master's in journalism from SIMC, Pune.
Maharashtra, 16 Jun 2021 4:42 AM GMT
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Palak a journalism graduate believes in simplifying the complicated and writing about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. She calls herself a " hodophile" or in layman words- a person who loves to travel.
Creatives : Nishit Navin
I have lived in 7 cities across India. I completed my graduation with a triple major in English, Journalism, and animation. Currently, I am doing my master's in journalism from SIMC, Pune.
The cost-effective masks, developed by Thincr Technologies, have an antiviral coating that is being claimed to destroy the outer membrane of the virus, rendering it inactive.
Pune-based startup Thincr Technologies has developed 3D printed masks with antiviral properties that kill the coronavirus when it comes in contact with the mask. These masks are coated with agents called virucides that neutralize the virus on interception.
The project was financed by the Technology Development Board (TDB), a body under the Department of Science and Technology. Fund was issued as a part of the government's efforts to aid scientists, entrepreneurs, and industrialists to develop equipment that helps in the fight against COVID-19, reported LiveMint.
How Are The Masks Developed?
The project to develop virucidal masks initiated last year, in July, when the startup received financial aid from TDB, and later an agreement was signed. It was one of the first projects supported for commercialisation by the board.
Thincr Technologies worked with the pharmaceutical company Merck Life Science and used their research facility to develop these masks.
The coating is made from a Sodium Olefin Sulfonate-based mixture, a soap forming agent with hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties, which destroys the outer membrane of the virus. 3D printing is used to ensure that the coating is applied uniformly throughout the mask.
Effectiveness Of The Mask
Thincr Technologies has claimed that the masks offer bacterial filtration efficiency higher than 95 per cent.
"In this project, for the first time, we used 3D-printers to make multilayer cloth filters to precisely fit for plastic-moulded or 3D-printed mask covers," Thincr founder Shitalkumar Zambad said, reported The Business Line.
Reports mentioned that as many as 6000 masks have been distributed to government hospitals in three cities Nandurbar, Nashik, and Bengaluru. A girls' college in Bengaluru has also been the beneficiaries of these masks.
With the startup scaling production for commercial sale of the masks, it has applied for a patent of this product.
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