Some of the industries in Tiruppur and Coimbatore, with manufacturing facilities, are getting into production of personal protection gear, either the complete set or in individual products.
In Tiruppur, three companies have gone into manufacture of masks and some are doing coveralls. According to Raja Shanmugham, president of Tiruppur Exporters Association, there are a lot of enquiries for masks and coveralls as Tiruppur is a textile hub. “But we need fabric sealing facility for coveralls. Even in the case of masks, so far, we only use dust-preventive masks. We need to use sterilised non-woven fabric for the masks used by healthcare sector as a precaution against COVID-19. Availability of the fabric meeting the approved standards is not much. Many are asking for the masks. But we cannot shift to it easily. We can only stitch masks. We cannot do the moulded ones,” he says.
According to the General Manager of Coimbatore District Industries Centre, Karthigaivasan Kachirayar, two companies make coveralls that meet the government standards and one is making coveralls that the healthcare workers can use. One manufacturer is contemplating production of the entire Personal Protective Equipment kit. “We have provided the technical details to the manufacturer,” he said.
For masks, three units were already making three-ply masks and two more have got into it. One person has got into face cover. Apart from these, two companies produce ventilators for larger brands.
One manufacturer is getting into it and has done three prototypes. One more company has started producing. “There is higher movement of ventilators from here,” he said.
A lot of textile manufacturers in States such as Punjab had switched over to protective gear recently. Coimbatore was a major textile centre and the government was talking to the manufacturers to encourage them to get into this segment, he said.
