Artificial joint specialist turns to face mask production in Beijing

In Beijing's northwest district of Haidian, Li Renyao, an artificial joint special, is proud to see his newly assembled production lines running round-the-clock churning out face masks.

"It was the most dramatic and unexpected career change in my life," Li said, when recalling an urgent mission entrusted on him by the Naton Medical Group, a leading Chinese orthopedic products supplier, in February to build the production lines.

Face masks are among the most urgently needed epidemic prevention gear as COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc globally.

"I managed to buy seven used mask production machines from rural areas in Hebei, and dismantled two of them with my workers to learn how they work," said Li.

In this way, Li turned himself into a mask production machine engineer. He used some of the dismantled parts and accessories processed by Naton's own lathes to complete building the five mask production lines.

The machines are rolling out 300,000 face masks per day.

"The five production lines consume 280 kg of meltdown cloth every day for making face masks," Li said. "All that I thought about every day was where to source tomorrow's fabric."

The non-woven fabric is the raw material of filtering layers for both N95 respirators and surgical masks.

In order to help the company solve the supply problem and address the market thirst, the Haidian district government reached an agreement with Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. to build the production for making the chemical fiber.

With the strong guarantee, Naton is currently expanding the mask production in Beijing's outer district of Miyun. The company's daily output of face masks has reached 1.3 million.

The products are sent to supermarkets, gas stations and pharmacies in Beijing under the government's unified allocation.

As a surgeon who often uses face masks, Li had never thought of masks as technology-heavy items, at least not compared with his familiar artificial joints. But now he has been obsessed with the method to improve the welding technology of masks' ear bands.

"I am thinking that maybe the ultrasonic welding of the ear band ropes to the mask layers can be changed to perforation, which may greatly enhance the production efficiency," said Li.

Walking on the street in Beijing, Li can easily identify masks made by his company.

"The epidemic will have a profound impact on public health and epidemic prevention. The company plans to maintain the mask production even after the epidemic is over," said Li, adding he will also stick to the research and development of masks.