WEST WHITELAND — As instances of COVID-19 proceed to escalate, a Chester County small enterprise proprietor is on the forefront of the distribution of latest expertise in Private Protecting Gear (PPE).
Samantha Partovi is the president and CEO of Ramshield Inc., a medical tools startup primarily based in West Whiteland, that provides proprietary healthcare and PPE merchandise worldwide.
Partovi’s firm is certainly one of a small variety of approved personal distributors of a brand new facemask that’s being referred to as a “sport changer” within the combat towards COVID-19.
The masks makes use of new expertise that not solely prohibits germs from breaking by the masks’s barrier, it kills viruses — together with the coronavirus. Manufactured within the U.S. by American Biomedical Pandemic Masks Co., it makes use of expertise developed by ABGI. Will probably be distributed underneath Ramshield’s AV Protect model.
“We’re enthusiastic about getting America again to work and again to class and serving to to offer a greater security web towards the coronavirus,” Partovi stated of her involvement in getting the masks into {the marketplace}.
Manufacturing of the masks has simply gotten underway. Ramshield Inc. has been taking preorders for the masks on its web site. Shipments are anticipated to start by the top of December.
“We hope the phrase will get out rapidly so we can assist shield extra folks through the top of this pandemic,” Partovi added.
The AV Protect masks is right for anybody engaged on the “entrance strains” of the pandemic, together with lecturers, hospital employees, nurses, medical doctors, manufacturing facility employees and nursing properties.
“Anybody who’s a excessive threat or anybody that wants that stage of safety,” she stated.
How does the AV Protect work?
When worn, the masks creates an air tight seal on the wearer’s face, in response to Partovi. No air escapes across the cheeks or the nostril — which helps forestall glasses from fogging — and germs gained’t get in or out, she stated. The airflow solely travels by the cartridge.
“This masks is the primary of its sort in the marketplace that incorporates electroceutical expertise that basically kills COVID on contact,” Partovi stated.
The masks has a cartridge that clips in, that’s embedded with the expertise.
“Consider it like a mini-battery, in order that when moisture is utilized, it creates a small voltage — not sufficient to really feel — however sufficient that when any microorganism lands or comes by, it’s rendered inactive,” she added.
The cartridge will keep moist for about 10 hours, and might be recharged by being re-moistened.
Partovi added that the masks’s seal is a particular foam that when worn, varieties a tighter seal across the face, whereas remaining snug.
The masks will final for one yr, and might be washed by hand; the filter must be changed each 30 days.
How did a small, Chester County firm grow to be certainly one of a small group of distributors for this product?
Partovi stated a whole lot of it needed to do with “robust relationships we now have constructed through the years and the networking and the robust ethics which have helped align us with the producer.”
“What I’ve seen with the PPE trade is it has grow to be a really wild, wild West, with a whole lot of counterfeit merchandise on the market,” Partovi stated, including that her firm solely carries U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) and Nationwide Institute for Occupational Security and Well being (NIOSH) authorized merchandise.
Early within the pandemic, there was a must get N95 masks to members of the Dental Affiliation of Connecticut. Partovi partnered with one other distributor to fill that want. The 2 firms solid a closed relationship, she stated, including that the opposite distributor is now the grasp distributor for the brand new masks’s producer.
Partovi spent greater than 30 years in advertising, final working for a Fortune 500 firm. After the beginning of her son, she determined she didn’t wish to journey as a lot. She stated her brother, who’s within the healthcare trade, inspired her to make use of her expertise to assist get healthcare merchandise to market.
Ramshield Inc. was established in 2014. A licensed PA Small Enterprise and Lady-Owned enterprise, Ramshield Inc. can be included on Pennsylvania’s PPE useful resource web site.
Along with distribution, Ramshield Inc. manufactures two proprietary merchandise — an anti-microbial protecting case for transportable affected person screens and an an infection management bonnet that wraps across the edges of computer systems and screens to guard the buttons from fluids and germs that may disguise from disinfectants.
The corporate is at the moment working with Tom Elmer, an adjunct advertising professor at West Chester College and SCORE mentor. Two college students from Elmer’s Digital Advertising Expertise class — Kathleen Shannon and William Claudio — are engaged on social media and public relations for the brand new product.
Ramshield Inc. is privately held and consists of Partovi, in addition to one full-time worker and two salesmen.
The AV Protect masks is available in two sizes, and the starter package features a 90-day provide of three cartridges, three forms of straps and a case. The retail value is $39.99, and orders might be positioned on the Ramshield Inc. web site www.ramshieldinc.com.
