Polymer helps protect workers

Posted on Friday 1 January 2010

A polymer invented by University of Manchester academics is a key component of a new type of sensor that indicates when it is time for a user of industrial respirators to change their organic vapour filter.

According to 3M, there has been no visual indicator to help determine when to change an organic vapour filter until now. The new 3M Service Life Indicator provides a simple, visual tool to help users determine when to change their filters, and contains the University developed innovation – a polymer of intrinsic microporosity, referred to as a PIM.

Organic vapours readily adsorb into the PIM, and the sensor is designed to indicate when the PIM collects vapours above a specified minimum indication level.

PIMs were developed at the University in research led by Professors Peter Budd and Neil McKeown, with the innovation licensed to 3M by the University’s agent for intellectual property commercialisation (UMIP).