Muse Wearables, an Indian startup in Chennai is developing a new coating textiles machine with antimicrobial agents for use in personal protective equipment (PPE). The pilot machine can currently coat up to 100 metres of certain fabrics within a few minutes.

The start-up is backed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. The group’s current efforts are on scalability for coating textiles with nanoparticles-based antimicrobial agents that can inactivate the human coronavirus upon contact. These coatings are said to be effective up to 60 wash cycles and would be primarily used to manufacture N95 masks, surgical masks, PPE and food packaging bags.

Currently, cotton, polyester and cotton-polyester can be coated; the startup expects to test more fabrics soon. Muse Wearables is also said to be partnering with a mask manufacturing company to launch five-layered antiviral N95 masks.