Coronavirus Outbreak: DRDO Develops Bio-suit For Safety Of Health Professionals

New Delhi: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a bio-suit to keep medical, paramedical and other personnel engaged in combating COVID-19 safe from the deadly virus. According to a Press Information Bureau (PIB) release, scientists at various DRDO laboratories applied their technical know-how and expertise in textile, coating and nanotechnology to develop the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) having a specific type of fabric with coating.

The DRDO bio-suit has been prepared with the help of the industry and subjected to rigorous testing for textile parameters as well as protection against synthetic blood. The DRDO is making all efforts to ensure that these suits are produced in large numbers and serve as the robust line of defence for the medics, paramedics and other personnel in the front line combating COVID-19, the PIB note added.

DRDO's efforts are being complemented by the industry. M/s Kusumgarh Industries is producing the raw material, coating material, with the complete suite being manufactured with the help of another vendor. The current production capacity is 7,000 suits per day. Another vendor is being brought in with the experience in garment technology and efforts are on to ramp up the capacity to 15,000 suits per day. The bio-suit production in the country by DRDO industry partners and other industries are being hampered due to the non-availability of seam sealing tapes. The DRDO has prepared a special sealant as an alternative to seam sealing tape based on the sealant used in submarine applications, according to the PIB release.

The DRDO bio-suit will augment the supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), much-needed by doctors and paramedics in the frontline of the war against Coronavirus.