Original Title: Current Situation and Trend of medical protective suit Development Medical protective suit refers to the protective articles used by doctors, nurses, public health personnel, cleaning personnel and other medical staff when they enter a specific area. It has the function of isolating pathogens and harmful ultra-fine particles. China has become the largest production and processing base of medical protective equipment in the world. About 180 million disposable (disposable) surgical gowns are used in the world every year, of which 60% are produced and processed in China. Nevertheless, in 2020, the spread of COVID-19 pandemic across the country, protective suit and medical masks became the most scarce protective medical supplies. The reasons for the shortage of protective suit are related to the shortage of protective materials, small inventory and the holidays of enterprises during the Spring Festival. 1 Development of medical protective suit. 1.1 Development history of medical protective suit material The use of medical protective suit began in the early 1920s. In order to prevent bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms from contaminating sterile operating rooms and protect patients from being infected by microorganisms carried by medical staff, hospitals began to use specialized surgical protective suit. At first, the material of medical protective suit was relatively single, and cotton was used to make surgical protective suit. During the operation, surgeons found that the surgical clothes made of this material could block the penetration of bacteria when they were dry, but once the surgical clothes were soaked with sweat, the protective suit could not resist the invasion of bacteria. In World War II, for military needs, the U.S. Army developed a high-density woven fabric treated with fluorocarbon and benzene compounds, which greatly enhanced the waterproof performance of the treated high-density fabric. After the end of World War II, civilian hospitals began to use this high-density fabric treated with fluorocarbons and benzene compounds as medical protective suit. Since the 1980s, with the emergence of blood-borne pathogens such as HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), there have been cases of medical staff being infected. With the deepening understanding of pathogens, human beings have gradually realized the importance of self-protection. More and more attention has been paid to the risk that medical staff may be infected in the process of treating patients, and the development of medical protective suit industry has attracted the attention of all countries. In addition, with the continuous research and development of new materials, countries around the world have made breakthroughs in tackling key problems around medical protective suit materials, which has promoted the rapid development of medical protective suit industry. 1.2 medical protective suit type Medical protective suit can be divided into daily work clothes, surgical gowns, isolation clothes and protective suit according to their use purposes; they can be divided into disposable type and reusable type according to their service life; and they can be classified into woven fabric, non-woven fabric and composite material according to the fabric structure (see Table 1). Table 1 Main types of medical protective suit. Taxonomy Type Definition According to the use of daily work clothes, medical staff wear white overcoats in daily work. Work clothes specially made for use in an operating room. Clothing worn by medical staff in contact with patients, family visits to patients, etc. Protective suit of clothing worn by persons entering special areas such as infectious areas. According to the service life, it is divided into disposable protective suit and discarded after one use. Repetitive use protective suit can be used many times. According to the material, the processing material of protective suit protective suit is woven material, which can be reused protective suit and is mainly used for daily protective suit. High-density fabric is protective suit protective suit made of high woven cotton yarn or other superfine synthetic fiber filaments, which is mainly used as a material for surgical gowns with good waterproof effect. 2 Development status of medical protective suit. 2.1 Development status of medical protective suit materials The medical protective suit is mainly made of light, soft, breathable and waterproof special materials, so that it has the function of anti-virus and anti-bacteria. In addition, rubber strip sealing is added at the protective suit suture to enhance the protective effect. Therefore, under the condition of ensuring anti-virus and anti-bacteria, medical protective suit should also take into account the properties of light, soft, breathable and waterproof. At present, the materials used in medical protective suit are generally composite materials, and the barrier layer with certain permeability in composite materials is the key material for medical protective suit. Medical protective suit have different properties because of the different types of materials used.
At present, the disposable protective suit mainly uses the breathable film/nonwoven composite fabric and the reusable multi-purpose polymer coated fabric. Because the medical protective suit made of woven materials are generally used for daily work clothes, the materials used in medical protective suit are non-woven materials. At present, the nonwovens developed and marketed around medical protective suit materials mainly include the following. Expand the full text 2.1.1 Polypropylene spunbonded fabric Polypropylene spunbonded fabric (Fig. 1) is made of spunbonded non-woven fabric technology. The technology of Leuven in Germany, STP in Italy and Kobe Steel in Japan are the main spunbonded non-woven fabric technologies used in the world. The polypropylene polymer and the additive are extruded and stretched into filaments, the filaments form a network structure, and the fiber web is reinforced into a non-woven fabric,Full Body Disposable Coverall, so that the polypropylene spunbonded fabric is manufactured. The polypropylene spunbonded cloth is made into the medical protective suit through the treatment of antibiosis, antistatic and the like. Compared with the traditional woven protective suit, the protective suit of polypropylene spunbonded fabric is undoubtedly a great progress, which has the advantages of high strength, high temperature resistance, aging resistance, ultraviolet resistance, anti-corrosion, non-toxic and so on. In addition, the cost of the medical protective suit of the polypropylene spunbonded cloth is lower, so that the medical protective suit can be used once, and the cross infection rate is greatly reduced. Because of the medical protective suit and low cost of polypropylene spunbonded fabric, it has been favored by domestic and foreign markets for a long time. However, in clinical applications, it is found that the protective suit of this material has poor isolation effect on microorganisms, and polypropylene spunbonded cloth can only be used as general protective equipment in subsequent applications, such as sterile surgical gowns, sterile wrapping cloth and so on. Figure 1 Polypropylene spunbonded fabric 2.1.2 Spunlaced fabric composed of polyester fiber and wood pulp Polyester fiber and wood pulp spunlace cloth (Figure 2) is made of polyester fiber and high-quality imported wood pulp as raw materials, using advanced spunlace equipment,KN95 Face Mask, without adding any chemical adhesives. The material has soft hand feeling, can be compared favorably with the traditional textile, and has the advantages of unique absorption capacity, liquid absorption capacity, environmental protection, no dust, static electricity prevention and the like. The polyester fiber and the wood pulp spunlace fabric are firstly subjected to antibiosis, antistatic and three-resistance (alcohol resistance, blood resistance and oil resistance) to be further made into a medical protective suit material. This material is also not an ideal choice for medical protective suit because of its poor viral particle barrier efficiency. Figure 2 Polyester fiber and wood pulp spunlace fabric 2.1.3 Polypropylene spunbond-meltblown-spunbond composite nonwovens Polypropylene spunbond-meltblown-spunbond composite nonwoven fabric (Figure 3) is a composite material made of polypropylene meltblown fabric and meltblown spunbond fabric. If only using melt-blown fabric, although the material has high filtration efficiency and strong ability to resist hydrostatic pressure, its poor wear resistance and strength limit its application in medical protective suit. Therefore, the polypropylene spunbond-meltblown-spunbond composite nonwovens have the excellent characteristics of both meltblown fabric and meltblown spunbond fabric. After antistatic, "three anti" and other treatments, the two materials can meet the performance requirements of medical protective suit, which is an ideal choice for medical protective suit materials. Figure 3 Polypropylene spunbond-meltblown-spunbond composite nonwoven fabric As the first choice of medical protective suit, high-performance melt-blown polypropylene material has been favored by the market in recent years due to multiple favorable factors, and manufacturers are also actively developing and expanding the polypropylene fiber market. Statistics show that the domestic output of polypropylene fiber in 2019 is about 1.7 million tons, an increase of 7.5% over 2018. 2.1.4 Polymer-coated fabric Polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride and other synthetic rubbers can be used for the coating of polymer medical protective suit, and there are many kinds. The protective suit of polymer coated fabric (Figure 4) is very strong in bacterial barrier and waterproof performance, and it is also the main material for reusable medical protective suit at present. But at the same time, this waterproof property also gives it poor moisture permeability, resulting in a large amount of sweat of medical staff can not be discharged, and the comfort is poor.
During the "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)" in 2003, due to the limitation of material types, medical staff could only use rubber-coated fabric medical protective suit to fight the epidemic. Since then, it has been found that the waterproof and breathable performance of microporous polytetrafluoroethylene film can be improved by compounding with fabric, but the cost of the material as a disposable product is very high. Figure 4 Polymer-coated fabric 2.1.5 Polyethylene breathable film/nonwoven composite fabric Polyethylene breathable film/nonwoven composite cloth (Figure 5) is composed of breathable films with different breathability and three fibers (polypropylene, polyester and viscose). At present, the disposable protective suit mainly uses breathable film/nonwoven composite cloth, and the medical protective suit made of the material has the advantages of high tensile strength, good air permeability and the like in addition to excellent virus barrier and liquid penetration performance. In addition, the hand feeling of the protective suit can be adjusted by changing the softness of the composite fabric, so that the comfort performance of the protective suit is greatly improved. The medical disposable medical protective suit made of the polyethylene breathable film/non-woven fabric composite cloth does not contain toxic components, is light to wear and low in cost, and can effectively prevent cross infection and protect the health and the safety of medical staff. Figure 5 Polyethylene Breathable Film/Nonwoven Composite Fabric 2.2 medical protective suit production proces The main materials used to make medical protective suit are spunlaced nonwovens, spunbonded nonwovens, Medical Disposable Coverall ,Medical Quickly Delivery Antivirus Coverall, flash-evaporated nonwovens and spunbonded and melt-blown (SMS) composites. Spunbonded non-woven fabrics mainly use chemical fiber spinning method to form polypropylene filaments, and then use airflow or mechanical method to separate the filaments into webs, which are very close to traditional textiles in terms of hand feeling and performance; A spunlaced non-woven fabric is prepare by spraying that fibre web of polyester fibre, chinlon fibre, polypropylene fibre, etc. With high pressure wat column and high speed water flow to make the fibres in the fibre web move, rearrange and connect with each other so as to solidify them into fabric; The flash evaporation non-woven fabric uses polyolefin as the main raw material, adopts electrostatic separation to make the filament stretch into a single fiber state, then uses an electrostatic device to condense the fiber into a web, and then the web is hot-rolled to form the non-woven fabric; SMS composite non-woven fabric is a kind of non-woven fabric made by combining two or more non-woven webs with different properties through chemical, thermal or mechanical means, or by combining different web forming processes. The medical protective suit non-woven fabric is made into the medical medical protective suit through the processes of cutting, sewing and ironing, and the process flow is shown in Figure 6. Figure 6 Process flow diagram 2.3 Market Size In recent years, the market size of China's personal protective equipment industry has shown a steady growth trend before the spread of the epidemic, and the market size of personal protective equipment is nearly 100 billion yuan. China has become the largest production and processing base of medical protective equipment in the world. About 100 million disposable surgical gowns are used in the world every year, of which 60% are produced and processed in China. From 2014 to 2019, the market size of personal protective equipment in China (calculated by terminal sales) increased from 54.25 billion yuan to 87.37 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.0%. At the beginning of 2020, in the short term of sudden COVID-19 pandemic, China's personal protective equipment industry appeared the phenomenon of out-of-stock products and price boosting, which rapidly stimulated the market size and growth. The estimated scale is nearly 100 billion yuan. With the spread of the epidemic, the gap between supply and demand has emerged, and the growth rate of the industry has increased significantly. However, with the strengthening of epidemic prevention and control measures, the epidemic situation will be gradually alleviated until it ends, the tight supply and demand situation will be alleviated, and the market size and growth rate will fall back to a stable level. The market size and forecast of China's personal protective equipment from 2014 to 2020 are shown in Figure 7. Data source: China Business Industry Research Institute Figure 7 Scale and Forecast of China's Personal Protective Equipment Market from 2014 to 2020 2.4 Main manufacturers of medical protective suit. Medical protection enterprises are mainly concentrated in central China. According to the data of the State Food and Drug Administration, as of February 6, 2020, the total number of approvals for medical protective suit products in China was 48, involving 43 manufacturing enterprises.
China's medical protective suit products enterprises are mainly concentrated in central China, mainly in Henan and Hubei, with 21 enterprises approved in the region, accounting for 48.8% of the total number of qualified enterprises in the country; the total number of enterprises approved in East China is 12, accounting for 27.9% of the total. The distribution of enterprises approved for medical protective suit in China in 2020 is shown in Figure 8. Data source: China Business Industry Research Institute Figure 8 Distribution of medical protective suit Approved Enterprises in China in 2020 Among them, Henan Province is the main gathering area of medical protective suit production enterprises in China, with 15 regional enterprises, 5 approved enterprises in Hubei Province, 4 approved enterprises in Anhui Province for medical protective suit, 3 approved enterprises for medical protective suit in Shandong Province, and 2 approved enterprises for medical protective suit in Jiangxi, Hebei, Tianjin and Guangdong provinces. As of February 2020, the number of medical protective suit manufacturing enterprises in all provinces and cities in China is shown in Figure 9, and the summary list is shown in Table 2. Data source: China Business Industry Research Institute Figure 9 medical protective suit Manufacturing Enterprises in China's Provinces and Cities in 2020 Table 2 List of medical protective suit Manufacturing Enterprises in China's Provinces and Cities in 2020 Data source: China Business Industry Research Institute No. Enterprise name Province 1 Hubei Ruikang Medical Consumables Co., Ltd. 2 Steady Medical (Chongyang) Co., Ltd. Hubei Wuhan Xiezhuo Health Co., Ltd. Hubei 4 Xiantao Shengmei Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. Hubei 5 Xiantao Ruifeng Health Protection Products Co., Ltd. Hubei 6 Jiangxi Bomeister Medical Technology Co., Ltd. Jiangxi 7 Jiangxi Hiford Sanitary Products Co., Ltd. Jiangxi Nanning Tengke Baodi Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Guangxi 9 Liaoyuan Guangerjie Disinfectant Co., Ltd. Jilin 10 Hebei Yingbao Medical Instrument Co., Ltd. 11 Langfang Development Zone Yingbao Medical Supplies Co., Ltd. Hebei 12 Ruiansen (Tianjin) Medical Devices Co., Ltd. Tianjin Tianjin yuanhang Industry and Trade Development Co., Ltd. Tianjin Beijing Bangwei Hi-Tech Special Textiles Co., Ltd. Beijing 15 Shandong Jiuer Industrial Group Co., Ltd. Shandong 16 Shandong Kangli Medical Instrument Technology Co., Ltd. Shandong 17 Shandong Jucheng Medical Instrument Co., Ltd. Shandong 18 Fujian Ankang Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. Fujian 19 Suzhou Aojian Medical Products Co., Ltd. Jiangsu 20 Anhui Fumei Medical Technology Co., Ltd. 21 Anhui Monique Medical Materials Co., Ltd. Anhui 22 Hefei Gaobaisi Medical and Health Products Co., Ltd. Anhui 23 Hefei Medeep Medical and Health Products Co., Ltd. Anhui 24 Hunan Yongfei Special Protective Products Co., Ltd. Hunan 25 Xinjiang Lebeier Trading Co., Ltd. Xinjiang 26 Henan Jielikang Medical Supplies Co., Ltd. Henan 27 Henan Kangerjian Medical Technology Co., Ltd. 28 Henan Ticket Group Co., Ltd. Henan 29 Henan Huayu Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. Henan 30 Henan Jianqi Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. Henan Henan Blue Sky Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. Henan Henan Scorsese Technology Development Co., Ltd. Henan 33 Henan Zhongjian Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. Henan 34 Henan Yadu Industrial Co., Ltd. Henan 35 Xinxiang Dafang Medical Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Henan 36 Xinxiang Hongda Eisai Co., Ltd. Henan 37 Xinxiang Kangbeier Medical Technology Co., Ltd. Henan 38 Yixin Medical Devices Co., Ltd. Henan 39 Changdong Medical Devices Group Co., Ltd. Henan 40 Dongguan Xinyi Medical and Health Care Products Factory Guangdong 41 Foshan Nanhai Kangdefu Medical Products Co., Ltd. Guangdong 42 Zhende Medical Products Co., Ltd. Zhejiang 3. Prospect of medical protective suit in China There are some problems in the medical protective suit market, such as uneven quality and different standards. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of medical protective clothing has increased sharply, which has become an important medical protective material urgently needed in the first-line anti-epidemic. In order to make the medical protective suit develop healthily and orderly, it is suggested to strengthen the improvement from the following aspects.
One is to speed up the research and development of medical protective suit materials. Disposable medical protective suit is a necessary means to prevent pollution and cross infection, and it is the inevitable trend of future medical protective suit and social development. At present, the disposable protective suit mainly uses breathable film/nonwoven composite cloth, but the material has poor air permeability. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the research and development of new disposable medical protective suit materials, improve the air permeability, reduce costs and increase comfort on the premise of improving the protective effect of protective suit. The second is to develop new medical protective suit materials and their applications. Develop new medical protective suit materials and develop the application fields of new materials. When emergency situations such as epidemics occur, relevant new material enterprises can quickly change production to meet the needs of prevention and control. Third, we should improve the methodological standards and management standards of medical protective suit. Compared with ISO and CEN standards, China's medical protective suit standards focus on technical and product standards, and are imperfect in methods and management standards. It is suggested that China's medical protective suit standards should be continuously improved on the basis of existing standards and with reference to ISO and CEN standards. At the same time, medical protective suit standards must be strictly and prudently implemented, which is essential to ensure the safety and health of the vast number of medical staff and the masses. The four is to establish an emergency mechanism for protective suit reserves. Material reserve is an important material basis for ensuring national security, and it is also very important to establish a medical protective suit reserve mechanism. Medical protective suit reserve should aim at regulating and stabilizing the market, coping with emergencies and improving the ability of medical staff and people's life safety, and scientifically determine the function and scale of medical protective suit reserve. To form a community of interests with shared risks, shared benefits and long-term stability. 4 Conclusion COVID-19 pandemic touches the hearts of the people of the whole country, and the whole country is playing a chess game, donating money and materials to fight the epidemic together. The consumption of medical protective clothing has increased sharply, and it has become an important medical protective material urgently needed in the first-line anti-epidemic campaign. After the epidemic weakens and ends, the tension between supply and demand will ease, and the market size and growth rate will fall back to a stable state. Through this COVID-19 pandemic, I hope that more and more medical protective suit enterprises can go to the right track, go to the international market and strive for the world's first-class level. Chen Tiebing 1 Zhou Shuqian 2 1. Hefei Lucky Technology Industry Co.,Medical Full Body Coverall, Ltd. 2. Party School of CPC Hefei Municipal Committee Feel good, please like ↓ ↓ ↓ return to Sohu, see more Responsible Editor:. zjyuan-group.com