Joining forces to produce high-quality face masks with verifiable authenticity

Suominen Corporation’s press release on October 7, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. (EEST)

To do their share during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, three Finnish companies, Suominen Corporation, Screentec Oy and TrueMed Oy, joined forces to develop and start production of Finnish, high-quality respirators.

Finland, with no domestic face mask production at the time, had difficulties sourcing high-quality masks at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suominen, a globally leading nonwovens producer, was one of the companies that promptly reacted to the difficult situation. In an ultra fast-tracked innovation process Suominen and its partners developed a novel nonwoven, FIBRELLA Shield, suitable for use in the manufacturing of respirators. The innovative nonwoven, developed in only a few months, has passed the European Standard EN 14683:2019 Type II requirements in terms of filtration efficiency and pressure drop.

“FIBRELLA Shield not only provides excellent protection, it is also comfortable and easy to breathe through,” says Suominen’s Category Manager Johanna Sirén.

At the same time that Suominen was developing the new material, Screentec Oy – a renowned producer of medical electrodes and human-machine interfaces for demanding environments – decided to start production of high-quality face masks at its Oulu works. After an exceptionally fast installation phase, the new production line was ready by late summer. 

“The common aim, a fully domestic supply chain for high-quality face mask production, was a natural starting point for our cooperation with Suominen. The plan is that in the future we will mainly use Suominen’s FIBRELLA Shield in our face masks,” says Screentec’s CEO Antti Tauriainen.

Suominen has been working with TrueMed Oy, an innovative Finnish start-up, already earlier. TrueMed has developed an AI and machine vision-based non-additive solution that is used to detect original and counterfeit medicines and medical products.  

The aim of the cooperation between the three companies is to be able to confirm the authenticity of the masks and the nonwoven used in them – in this case, FIBRELLA Shield – and thus to guarantee end-user safety. The cooperation also aims to produce important inventory information for the customer, for example, information about expiration days or how many masks that have been used.