-By Industrial India Content team
Catering to the demand in the medical industry, Rashmi Rare Earth Limited (RREL), an electronic manufacturing unit of a multi-dimensional business conglomerate, initiated the production of surgical masks in mid-April, to support the Indian government’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company aims to produce 6,000 surgical masks per hour in the start ramping up to 18,000 masks per hour within April by installing three production lines. The surgical mask manufacturing unit will be completely integrated and automatic with quality and credibility as its core interest. The production unit will mechanically manufacture the mask body moulding with automatic nose bridge reinforcement and ear band welding, ensuring limited human contact. High production efficiency and good hardware configuration of the unit enables the production of 1.2 lakh surgical mask per day.
In addition to the manufacturing of triple-layer surgical mask, RREL is also in the process to commence production of N-95 masks, along with thermopile and infrared temperature sensors. Thermopile infrared non-contact temperature measurement sensors are the need of the hour as such a device can detect COVID-19 symptoms which could save lives. RREL will start production of N 95 masks and thermopile infrared temperature sensory by April end. Supporting ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government, a major chunk of raw materials will be sourced domestically and some essentials might be imported.
Sunil Kumar Patwari, CEO of Rashmi Rare Earth Limited said: “In light of the current dearth of essential medical commodities to fight against COVID-19, we will be setting facilities keeping the urgent requirement of the country. We will be utilizing the existing space and available manpower at our facility in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. We should be able to produce masks at an accelerating speed with the help of our machinery that is been installed. Following the government directives, there will be limited human interaction during the production process. Having adequate space, capital, necessary infrastructure and expertise RREL will produce 1 million masks by June’20.”
He added, “Indian authorities are undertaking all the required measures to remove any hindrances in the process setting up medical equipment facilities necessary to fight against COVID-19. However, creating a special empowered committee for COVID-19 under Defence Regulation-1 to enable the government to provision itself without the usual multi-step procurement chain and certification. This can be used for production and stocking up of PPE items.”
The masks manufactured will be supplied to central and state governments, medical distribution channels and hospitals to overcome the existing shortage.
