ULMA Packaging participates in the SPAIN project for the recycling of masks for use in healthcare

Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 health crisis, ULMA Packaging wanted to do its bit to provide solutions for the healthcare sector by participating in the S.P.A.I.N. project (Neutral Industrial and Antiseptic Pressurised System, originally Sistema Presurizado Antiséptico Industrial y Neutro).

This is a collaborative platform created in Asturias by Dr David Hevia Sánchez, a professor at Oviedo University, looking for alternative supplies of masks for use in healthcare in Spain, due to the extremely high demand currently.

Several companies, including ULMA Packaging, have thrown themselves into harnessing their knowledge and technical and human resources to provide solutions for the industrialisation of this initiative, which is also committed to sustainability, by reusing sanitary masks and making them fit for purpose again after they have undergone various sanitisation and sterilisation processes.

ULMA Packaging is taking part in the project by providing an FM 205 flow pack wrapping machine, which has been adapted to hermetically seal masks. This is a highly flexible machine which can be used for numerous applications. The versatile flowrapper it was adapted in record time and sent to Asturias, where it will be used for packaging masks. A specially designed film is used to support the sterilisation processes during this packaging process. When the product has been packed into packs of 25 units, it undergoes the final sterilisation process in an autoclave before it is finally put to use.

The SPAIN project, in which all participants are volunteers and numerous companies and institutions are selflessly involved, illustrates how solidarity and collective effort will undoubtedly be one of the ways of overcoming this crisis.