Enhance Breathability And Protection With Different Cloth Face Mask Fabrics

Wearing a facemask, frequent hand washing, physical distancing, and face covering are all well-accepted strategies being used to control the COVID-19 virus. When an infected person sneezes, coughs, and even exhales air produced by talking and breathing, the virus spreads through the air. This releases tiny droplets containing the virus into the air, which can be significantly minimized by using facemasks.

Controlling the spread of this virus from the source is a well-established technique for reducing community transmissions. The majority of countries throughout the world have made wearing a mask mandatory when leaving the house. Cloth face masks are a sustainable, economic, and simple alternative to surgical masks for reducing the spread at the source. However, you need to be aware of fabric types before buying a cloth mask. Factors like breathability and protection depend on the material used in manufacturing cloth masks. Below is a list for your convenience. 

Different Fabrics For Face Mask

1. Woven Fabric:

You can block the virus-containing droplets by woven fabric with a tight weave. Cotton blends, polyester, linen, cotton, flannel, silk, chiffon, and satin are a few woven fabrics for a face mask. Size and proper fit are important factors in ensuring efficacy. The construction of a woven material face mask should be feasible enough to cover the mouth and nose while allowing adequate air passage. A face mask made from these materials is truly washable and reusable. 

2. Cotton:

For a cloth facemask, the most widely and favored used fabric is 100 percent cotton with a high thread count.  A 600-thread count cloth can give average filtering efficiency of 79.23%. The effectiveness is marginally increased by using many layers of fabric.

3. Flannel:

Cotton quilts with cotton-polyester batting work nicely as exterior layers with flannel as inner layers. The batting’s highly knotted fibrous structure helps it function better at microscopic particle sizes.

4. Silk & Chiffon:

Fabrics such as chiffon, natural silk, and cotton, which are commonly found in accessories and apparel, can be used to make Do-it-Yourself (DIY) masks. These tight-weave fabrics provide good protection and typically have filtering effectiveness of more than 50% for particles. Natural silk and chiffon absorb the charge and act as an electrostatic filtering barrier. Cotton in combination with chiffon or silk is far more effective.

5. Knitted Fabric:

Knitting technology companies have developed knit fabric facemasks that are made in one piece. The knitted cotton fabric of t-shirts is a good choice for DIY masks. The efficiency of a facemask will reduce if it is not well fitted due to the counter of the face. Masks made of stretch knit fabric suit the face snugly without becoming uncomfortable.

6. Non-Woven Fabric:

Masks made from non-woven fabric are used in the medical sector and filters because they have better air permeability and bacteria filtration.  In medical masks, the non-woven fabric is either the surface material with a layer of filter paper in between them or sandwiched between a cotton-free absorbent gauze. A middle melt-blown polypropylene material and inner soft absorbent cellulose non-woven fabric act as a filter. The outside hydrophobic non-woven fabric is ideal for disposable procedural 3-ply face masks.

These are some common materials used by companies of face masks for sale. You can choose any kind according to your choice and ease.