New line is housed in the company’s new manufacturing site in Irvine, CA
June 6, 2021 | Source: Nonwovens Industry | Tara Olivo, Associate Editor
Matregenix Inc., a California-based technology company announces the expansion into a new manufacturing facility in Irvine, CA. The company installed a new nanofiber production line at its new site and plans to add at least another one by the end of the year.
“The time has arrived for us to add capacity. Over the past year during the global pandemic, we focused on research to develop new products and strengthen our IP portfolio while simultaneously serving our respirator customers by supplying our novel N95 filter media. We have received significant inbound demand and it is time to ramp up our production to be able to meet it,” states Dr. Sherif Soliman, founder and CEO of Matregenix.
“We are putting the new production line to work immediately to produce nanofiber filter media for respirator application,” says Ed O’Sullivan, general counsel of Matregenix. “Fortunately, this market should face some slowdown, but we feel like we have a social obligation to our respirator manufacturers who have taken up the fight against Covid-19. Moreover, the market for N95 respirator pre-Covid was filled with substandard products from China, driven by price opposed to quality. We believe that the pandemic significantly changed that, especially in the health care market. In addition to a shift in customer awareness, a new awareness of the importance of stockpiles and the shelf life of these products emerged. Only nanofiber technology can address these issues.”
Soliman adds: “Nanofiber adoption in commercial applications has been limited due to a deficient understanding of large-scale production requirements in this specialized field. Our team’s experience and understanding of this medium uniquely positions us to take the success in the lab and translate them into commercial-grade products.”
The structure of nanofiber media makes them an exceptional material for blocking fine dust particles, aerosols, bacteria, or viruses. Nanofiber-based filters provide better filtration performance in comparison with conventional materials at a significantly lighter weight. Matregenix is expanding the application of its filter media technology in many industrial applications such as HVAC and intake gas turbine filter media.
The company also continues to leverage its nanofiber technology to co-develop biomaterial-based constructs for medical implant applications with various strategic partners. The medical division is located separately at the state-of-the-art wet lab incubator, University Lab Partners, located at the UCI Research Park.