Protective suit that can be used at least 10 times approved

A Beijing-based producer gained approval from the health authorities on Wednesday for its self-developed multi-use protective clothing, which is expected to greatly outcompete ordinary protective clothing in the level of protection and cost savings.

A manager surnamed Li with BW Techtextile, a textile maker based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday that their protective clothing can be used up to 10 times and costs only a third of what ordinary medical protective clothing costs. The launch of this product marks the first of this kind of protective clothing for medical use in China, media reports said.

"The repeated-use protective clothing as one of our self-developed products has been used for special health emergency events for years, but this is the first time that the product has been approved for hospital use under the needs of pandemic prevention and control," Li said, adding that currently, its production capacity is around 5,000 pieces a month.

Bai Yu, president of the Medical Appliances Branch of the China Medical Pharmaceutical Material Association, told the Global Times that the launch of this new medical protective clothing is meaningful as it can be both cost effective and effective for protection.

"Ordinary types of protective clothing are made from non-woven fabric, which is fragile and cannot stand repeated use, so it is costly, especially as the demand is surging amid the pandemic outbreak, causing serious shortages of raw materials," he said.

Instead of using non-woven fabrics, the new protective clothing is made of three-layer composite materials self-developed by the company, which have strong physical and mechanical strength and anti-damage ability. Among them, the breaking strength and anti-permeability are required to reach the standard of disposable protective clothing for medical use at least 10 times, according BW Techtextile.

In addition, the protective clothing adopts advanced production processes including inner layering and air-tight zipper, which improves the product's protective tightness.

The Global Times learned that the protective clothing for medical use is just one of the company's many products. Other equipment includes protective clothing for military, nuclear and biological use.

BW Techtextile has no plans for export at the moment.