Automakers to rescue — mass production of N95 masks

March 29, 2020 Along Maartenvinhuizen

Note: After writing this article, Littleton commenter Jim said,Wanted—100,000 ventilators“Points to the article.Coronavirus: hammer and danceBy Tomas Pueyo. A must-read for anyone interested in the coronavirus.

Wearing a mask to protect yourself from bacteria and air pollution is very common in East Asia. In China, several provinces are now required to leave home. The fear of the coronavirus has made the people and governments more aware of the threat of infection.

Normal masks worn by people do not provide protection against the virus. Even medical N95 masks cannot produce complete protection. Unfortunately, N95 is the best one missing to use full protective surface protection. China produced about 20 million masks per day before the outbreak of the coronavirus, and only some of these masks were medical grade N95 masks.

There are 35 million health workers in China and 200 million in primary industries. Healthcare professionals are advised to switch masks at least every 4 hours. The secondary industry has an additional 350 million workers. Besides those workers, other people also need masks. Children who go to school, visitors to markets and shops, people who use public transportation-all activities should be done with masks.

China needs 235 million masks per day (preferably N95 grade) to protect everyone in the healthcare and primary industries with one mask per day. China needs more than one billion masks a day to protect the entire population.

N95 masks are made using nonwoven polypropylene filters under clean room conditions. Polypropylene is scarce and does not create cleanroom conditions overnight for large-scale industrial production processes. Mass production of fully automated masks requires sophisticated machinery. Of course, you can order from the manufacturer of the machine currently in use, but hundreds of customers are waiting.

And here is the opportunity for automakers. Most car manufacturers can make this type of machine themselves. There are clean room production facilities. Part of the paint shop can be diverted to the production of cleanroom masks. Automakers are used to mass production. Non-woven polypropylene filter material is used for sound insulation and heat insulation of automobiles. Automakers have all the resources to build a production line for N95 masks. China’s leading automakers BYD and GAC make dozens of automatic mask making machines. BYD currently manufactures 5 million masks per day in addition to 300,000 bottles of disinfectant. It grows to 10 million masks per day within a month.

In addition to these two, car maker SAIC-GM-Wuling, iPhone maker Foxconn, and more than 700 companies have begun producing face masks. They stopped producing a little more than necessary for their needs Millions per day For the market. The factory can only be restarted if the employee has sufficient personal protective equipment. The market will be production limited for some time.

What do US automakers do in these examples? Not only Detroit, but also Nissan, Toyota, Honda, BMW and of course Tesla are shrinking. They can at least partially restart the factory to make medical devices. Millions of American workers will need a mask every day for a while, as coronaviruses are likely to remain here. Using a New York metro system without a mask can be difficult for many. When Black Friday comes, the crowd will need tens of millions of masks.

European carmakers and other industry giants (and dwarfs) have nothing to do except start manufacturing pharmaceuticals. The situation in the United States is disastrous, with 125,000 confirmed cases (and many more unconfirmed cases). In Europe, there are an additional 350,000 confirmed cases. It will get worse tomorrow.

Without a more effective policy to stop the outbreak of COVID-19, you would soon need 7 billion masks per day. Because of the size of the world’s exposed population.

Here are the business opportunities that make very little silver lining during these difficult times.

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tag: Asia, BYD, Coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID-19 pandemic, Foxconn, GAC, GM, N95 mask, Pandemic, SAIC, Wuling

About the author

Maartenvinhuizen Grumpy old man. The best thing in my life was to raise two children. I just finished primary education, but when I’m not in school I have a lot of time to read. I switched from accounting to software development and ended my career as a system integrator and architect. My 2007 boss got two electric Lotus Elise vehicles to show policymakers the future direction of energy and transport. Since then, we have been considering replacing diesel vehicles with electric vehicles.
And with money in my mouth, I bought Tesla stock. I will keep it until I can exchange it for a Tesla car.