YOUNG MAKER

PPE Kits at ₹100, IIT KANPUR leads India’s fight against COVID19

To provide PPE kits at a cheaper cost
To provide protection to the frontline workers
To help the government by producing large quantities of PPE kits
Producing PPE kits faster than the standard ones

During the COVID19 outbreak, many people are making fun by posting memes and giving funny slogans like “Go Corona, Corona Go", but the IIT-Kanpur decided to pull up their socks and help the frontline workers by manufacturing PPE Kits (Personal Protective Equipment) at the cost of the only Rs.100 which is 20 times cheaper than the standard PPE kits. They call these kits as PIPES (Polyethylene-based Improvised Protective Equipment under Scarcity).

The IIT-KANPUR students and faculty members came up with this idea of making these PPE kits because the standard PPE kits are expensive and many times the standard kits are only given to the doctors. They came up with this idea to provide protection to the sanitary workers, delivery people, and other frontline workers at a very cheap price which can be afforded by the Government and the hospitals.

Why are these KITS so cheap?

It is astonishing to believe how they are producing these PPE kits at such a cheap price, but actually they are using thin cylindrical rolls/pipes of polyethylene (polythene), which is non-porous and commonly used in the industry for packaging and making plastic-bags which is very cheap, whereas the standard PPE kits are made from Non-Woven Polypropylene which is short in supply and also stitching and ultrasonic welding is required which is time-consuming and also very expensive.

The Journey of Manufacturing PIPES Kits

The main goal of IIT-KANPUR was to provide the PPE kits at a large scale and also at the time and money required in the production should be less. They wanted to do this because of the shortage of PPE kits and hence, to meet the requirements they came up with a model that is cost-effective and can also be produced at a large scale in a short time. They used Polyethylene instead of Non-Woven Polypropylene and during the different stages of designing they were constantly taking feedback from the local doctors about the design.

For manufacturing these PPE kits, the IIT-KANPUR took help from a local plastic manufacturer & till now they have manufactured and supplied around 2000 PPE KITS