Understanding FFP Masks and How They Work
FFP stands for 'Filtering Facepiece'; these masks offer effective protection against dust, mist and fumes and are available in three levels of protection; FFP1, FFP2 and FFP3. FFP’s from Moldex are made of high-quality filter material and fit closely to the face in order to achieve the high filter performance necessary.
How do FFP masks work?
The filter material in FFP masks maximise their function by using a combination of mechanical and electrostatic filtration.
Mechanical filtration - The mechanical mechanism of the filter material works like a sieve, filtering out larger particles. Through a microscope, the mechanical structure of the filter material used within an FFP mask looks like layers of messy fibres criss-crossing over each other, the density of these fibres increases as the protection level rises from FFP1 through to FFP2 and then FFP3. Such layering of solid fibres naturally leaves voids within the filter material. As the density of the filter increases, along with the protection level offered, these tiny spaces get smaller and are therefore able to filter out smaller particles.
Electrostatic filtration – The filter material is electrostatically charged and works like a gravitational field pulling smaller particles towards it. The advantage of this filtration method is that particles are drawn towards the solid fibres of the filter material instead of blocking the tiny voids within the sieve like structure, resulting in lower breathing resistance and increased loading capacity. A filter that relies solely on mechanical filtration would increase breathing resistance too much.
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Technical challenges of developing efficient FFP masks with low breathing resistance
Once FFP masks are put into use, the filter material starts to load with contaminants and as a result the breathing resistance will naturally increase. Masks that rely heavily on a mechanical filter will already have a higher breathing resistance and can soon become very uncomfortable to wear. This highlights the importance of the fit of the mask, if airflow is struggling to pass through the filter then particles will naturally find the route of least resistance and put additional strain on the sealing area!
For a respiratory manufacturer it is a real technical challenge to produce an efficient filter with low breathing resistance, this is particularly challenging when developing FFP3 masks. FFP3 masks have an extremely high filter efficiency of 99% meaning the mechanical structure is much denser and therefore the breathing resistance much higher than FFP’s with lower filter efficiency. This technical challenge is even harder when developing unvalved products or small sized FFP masks that use much less filter than standard sized products. Thankfully Moldex have overcome these technical challenges and are able to manufacture FFP masks with extremely low breathing resistance and yes, that includes small sized, unvalved FFP3 masks! We are one of very few respiratory manufacturers who make our own melt blown filter material and we have done for over 20 years! This allows us to keep innovating and improving our products and by using the perfect combination of mechanical and electrostatic filtration we are able to combine high filtration requirements and low breathing resistance. A great example of our in-house technologies is the development of our unique AirWave® Filter, by pleating the filter used within our AIR Series, AIR Seal and AIR Plus FFP masks we are able to more than double the amount of filter used. This leads to a noticeable reduction in breathing resistance which is up to 70% lower than prescribed by the standard, additionally when developing our unique AirWave® pleated filter technology, the loading capacity of the filter increases dramatically. This means that breathing resistance starts low and continues to remain low over a sustained period of time.
At Moldex we are proud to have supplied our customers with a high level of customer service and products for more than 30 years! We not only produce innovative products but also develop and build Moldex specific production technologies which gives us the advantage.