3016 VEnergy Drive
Brookshire, TX 77423
713-364-2363
[email protected]
www.aegleco.com

Aegle Corporation, a domestic manufacturer of NIOSH-approved N95 respirators, was founded by a team of social impact investors in response to catastrophic shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic. The Brookshire, TX-based company’s manufacturing facility installation was completed in January 2021 and production began in May 2021 following NIOSH approval.

“Like the 1918 flu pandemic and with vaccine inequality around the world, we may see more waves of this pandemic and we need to be prepared to help out,” says Aegle co-founder Andrew Moy. “Not only are we working on N95 respirator production, but we are also focused on vertical integration to secure the supply chain.”

The company currently has more than 90,000 square feet of manufacturing space across two facilities and is equipped with 15,000 square feet of ISO 7 and ISO 5 cleanroom space for manufacturing and sterile packaging. The remaining space will be used for expansion of the company’s vertical integration platform—Aegle is working on producing nonwoven materials internally.

“We are committed to bringing manufacturing jobs back to American soil, alleviating dependencies on foreign companies to protect the health and safety of the American people and creating innovative solutions for the overwhelming domestic demand for PPE from the federal, state, public and private sectors,” Moy says.

Aegle produces two styles of NIOSH-approved N95 respirators: Cup (C100) and foldable (F100). It has a total of 12 production lines operational, and has the production capacity to manufacture over 10 million respirators per month.

According to Moy, a typical respirator consists of four to five layers of different types of nonwoven material. The outer layer offers protection against fluid penetration, followed by a coarse filter layer, followed by a high filtration efficiency meltblown filter layer and a structural or support inside layer. In its next generation product, Aegle is using an antimicrobial and antifungal nonwoven material developed by Houston-based company Ascend Performance Materials to improve the performance of N95 respirators.

Moy says it’s critical to differentiate between face masks and N95 masks, typically called N95 respirators. “N95 respirators offer a much higher level of protection as compared to typical face masks. N95 respirators require NIOSH approval, follow stringent guidelines and quality processes. NIOSH approved N95 respirators require 95% or better particle filtration efficiency (85 lpm flow rate) and breathability (inhalation and exhalation resistance). NIOSH approved respirators also require head-strap design, and ear-loop style design is not acceptable.”

Only a few NIOSH approved N95 respirator manufacturers were approved last year in the U.S., he adds. “The supply of domestically produced N95 respirators has increased in the U.S., and the demand has softened,” he says. “With Delta and other emerging variants, the demand for N95 respirators is expected to fluctuate over next few months. With reduced vaccination rates and relaxed rules for face masks for the general population, we may see Covid hot spots around the U.S. The general public still has limited access to N95 respirators. With Aegle’s D2C approach, we expect to provide the general public access to NIOSH approved respirators.”

Currently Aegle’s products are available on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot and Shopify.

While Aegle’s general-purpose N95 respirators are similar to many commercially available respirators, Moy says with their domestic supply-chain well established, they have the ability to keep production up without reliance on international suppliers or vendors.  

Further, Aegle’s leadership team used their Silicon Valley roots to bring a patent-pending Near Field Communication (NFC) chip technology to the PPE business. “At Aegle, we prioritize protecting our supply chain integrity and preserving public trust,” he says. “Therefore, we have developed and integrated a proprietary patent-pending, anti-counterfeit open data solution into our NIOSH-approved N95 respirator product packaging.”

In addition to expanding its authentication platform, as well as focusing on vertical integration, Aegle plans to manufacture other PPE products in the future.