TANTU

COLLEGE OF TEXTILE TECHNOLOGY 
Berhampore & Serampore
Alumni Association (North India Chapter)

We at TANTU caution manufacturers not to venture into manufacturing PPE (body coveralls), unless you have expertise and infrastructure to do so. Any unintentional compromise (due to lack of knowledge and expertise) also may cost lives of intended users; frontline medical workers. However, to help and guide prospective manufacturers of PPE (Body coverall), TANTU has put together a resource guide for connecting the dots together.  Please check your eligibility as a coverall manufacturer.

Please contact communications@tantutextile.com to include your company name in this Resource Guide

Coverall Manufacturing Resource Guide 

Standards

Coverall should be of medium and large size, impermeable to blood and body fluids, single use, avoid culturally unacceptable colours e.g. black, light colours are preferable to better detect possible contamination. Quality standard for fabric as well as seam should meets or exceeds ISO 16603 class 3 exposure pressure, or equivalent. The guideline also says the garment should pass ‘Resistance to penetration by biologically contaminated solid particles (ISO 22612:2005).


Testing

Testing is the most important step. Please find details of new testing protocols for coverall here..


Fabrics & Tapes

Although nonwoven is the preferred choice of fabric worldwide due to low cost (as coverall is single use type), there is no mention about same in the guideline. Guideline clearly says that “fabric that cleared/passed/exceeded ‘Synthetic Blood Penetration Resistance Test’ (ISO 16603) class 3 exposure pressure, or equivalent”. Currently all three types of fabrics are being used for making coverall.
Seam sealing tapes are equally important parameters in a coverall. A list of fabric suppliers are:

Design & Pattern Making

Coverall is defined as a one-piece jumpsuit type loose-fitting protective garment that offer protection against outside contaminants over a large area of the body. It is full sleeve, full leg and fitted with hood. Soft Elastic to be fitted around Front of hood, wrists & ankles. The coverall should have Thumb/finger loops to anchor sleeves in place. There are few variations in design, but overall objective is to minimise the seam in the garment. The following organisations can help you with patterns and sample making.

Sewing & Seam sealing Machinery

The Coveralls should be taped at the seams to prevent fluid/droplets/aerosol entry. Apart from single needle lockstitch machine and four thread overlock machine the manufacturer will require a hot air seam sealing machine and hydrostatic tester. Some of the prominent suppliers of Hot air seam sealing machine and hydrostatic testing machine are:


Production Planning

The body coverall is having 6-8 parts, having 13 operations and total SAM (sewing + seam sealing) of 11.81. Total seam sealing time is 5.4 minutes per body coverall. Please find operation bulletin and further planning details here.

Sterilization and Sanitization

It is important to keep the workplace sanitized as well as the coverall produced should be sterilized before delivery. There are different technology for sterilization; ozone based and UV light based. Here enclosed some important technology suppliers.

Research & Development

Industry and academia has come together to develop new product & solutions that are either at incubation or commercial stage. Please check here