An IIT Delhi startup claims to have made an affordable and effective antiviral fabric which destroys 99.9% microbes within 30 minutes.
"After three years of rigorous research and development, Fabiosys Innovations, a deep-tech healthcare startup incubated at IIT Delhi, has developed an extremely affordable high-performance medical textile Fabium, which destroys ~ 99.9% of the bacteria and viruses within 30 minutes," says an official statement from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi.
Free from formaldehyde and metal nanoparticles this fabric, the startup says, is almost as breathable as regular fabrics, which makes it useful in applications like masks and PPE kits, where breathability is almost always an issue.
The startup says the fabric, made of Hi-PAT technology, starts working within seconds of contact with the pathogens and destroys them within 30 minutes. "Ordinary antimicrobial fabric products available in the market inhibit microbes in a span of 24 hours and that too with an unsatisfactory efficiency. This time span of 24 hours makes those antimicrobial fabric products impractical to be used in everyday life because a typical bacterium doubles itself in a span of around 20-30 minutes," it says.
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“From a philosophical perspective, we are trying to break the public stereotype that high-quality products will always be expensive. We want to make our infection-proof products as easily available and affordable as a bar of soap. Our mission is to manufacture Fabium at large scale in India itself. We are very thankful to the Department of Biotechnology; Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India; IIT Delhi and FITT, which supported this cause during this crucial moment of time,” said Professor Samrat Mukhopadhyay, mentor to Fabiosys.
So far, the team has successfully completed large scale manufacturing trials in collaboration with a textile industry partner in Delhi-NCR region to ensure that the large scale fabric manufacturing can be done while maintaining its high-efficiency and affordability.
“The affordability of Fabium is due to the technology behind it rather than cheap labour cost. A market research done by Team Fabiosys indicates that our cost-effective novel chemical formulation and unique textile processing technology make Fabium comparatively extremely affordable antiviral fabric. We are receiving encouraging response from the industry for manufacturing and distribution of Fabium products,” said Mr Yatee Gupta, Founder, Fabiosys Innovations.
