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Lanaco director of sales and marketing and co-founder Nick Davenport, operations manager Sonja Jekel, and head of farming Andy Ramsden outside Parliament at the launch of Lanaco’s P2 disposable face mask
To the Moon and Mars via New Zealand
High-tech natural-fibre filter maker Lanaco has launched a protective mask product that incorporate its organic/hybrid Helix filter – a product that has been selected by NASA for use in its next mission to the Moon and Mars.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
If there is anything that Kiwis have learnt this year, it is how quickly things can change. People and businesses have been focused on one thing, then, all of a sudden, a black swan event comes in the form of a virus. This has demanded that businesses be agile – and this certainly defines Lanaco.
Lanaco started making Helix filters to accredited biomedical standards more than five years ago, using a high-tech application of New Zealand wool, for others to incorporate into their masks, filters and other respiratory devices.
NASA has selected the wool filter to protect astronauts on the next manned missions to the Moon and beyond. The electrostatically-charged nature of the specially-bred wool in the filter captures particles in the air like a ‘dust magnet’, filtering particles that synthetic filters can’t.
It was the Australian bushfires and then the Covid-19 global pandemic that saw company founder and director of sales and marketing, Nick Davenport, change direction. He committed the company to building a totally indigenous supply chain. Lanaco began making disposable face masks as well as filters for other businesses and community groups to incorporate into their masks.