What is Allerguard
AllerGuard is a range of advanced, high-tech bedding products for use against house dust mite allergy and is marketed in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Through our own webshop or local dealers, we ensure that our customers always receive the best protection against house dust mite allergy.
- There are many certifications and approvals, but AllerGuard is CE marked as a Class I medical device, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/745 on medical devices (MDR), and is registered in EUDAMED.
- When a product complies with the MDR requirements, this indicates a high level of quality, safety and documentation.
- MDR places very strict requirements on clinical evidence, risk management and post-market surveillance. This means that AllerGuard is generally safer and more effective than products that do not meet the MDR requirements.
- MDR requires systematic documentation, quality control and traceability. This leads to more effective and transparent internal working procedures.
- MDR requirements for post-market surveillance (PMS) and vigilance mean that AllerGuard continually collects data and improves our products.
- AllerGuard is CE marked as a Class I medical device in accordance with MDR 2017/745 on medical devices and is registered in EUDAMED.
Greater assurance is not possible, and AllerGuard is CE marked in accordance with EU MDR 2017/745 as a Medical Device.
AllerGuard complies with the provisions of UKCA.
Source: AllerGuard
AllerGuard protects you from allergens
For more than 50 years, AllerGuard has demonstrated its effectiveness as the best protection against the house dust mite allergens found in mattresses. House dust mites are so widespread in our homes, particularly in our sleeping environments, that it is not necessary to test whether you have them.
This is because all house dust mites contain enzymes that can contribute to triggering asthma, eczema and allergic reactions in people who are predisposed. These reactions are very unpleasant and contribute to a significantly poorer quality of life, with poor or interrupted sleep, breathing problems, eczema, hay fever reactions such as itching in the nose or throat, and asthma.
AllerGuard’s allergen-proof, breathable mattress, duvet and pillow covers effectively stop house dust mites and do not allow allergens to pass through.
Protection after washing
Laboratory tests at ALK show that AllerGuard® maintains a density of 98.2% against microparticles with a diameter of 0.1 µm, even after 50 washes, and for particles with a diameter of 0.4 µm the density is as high as 99.6%.
Why AllerGuard?
Microparticles that are harmful to us, including mite excrement, bacteria and some viruses, are no larger than 0.1 µm. The house dust mites themselves are 10 to 400 times larger than the pores in the fabric, so they cannot penetrate the fabric from inside a mattress, an AllerGuard duvet or pillow.
Protection after washing
AllerGuard’s microfibre weave means that we have an equivalent pore size of 0.2 µm, even though it does not really make sense to talk about “pore size” in microfibre.
Laboratory tests at ALK-Abelló show that AllerGuard maintains 98.6% protection against microparticles with a diameter of 0.2 µm, even after 50 washes.
With microfibre fabric, different “pore sizes” are used than, for example, in cotton or compressed polyester thread. The individual filament sizes are measured in denier and not mm.
AllerGuard’s filaments (threads) are 1.04 denier. (See also Fig. 7 and 9.)
Warp fibres: 100% polyester
Weft fibres: Proprietary polyester/nylon-conjugated polyamide.
Diagram showing AllerGuard's protection against particle penetration
How?
The secret behind AllerGuard microfibre lies in the production process, which takes place using the AllerGuard microfibre Sharp Edge process.
The process of producing microfibre fabrics begins by melting polyester and polyamide granules.
The liquid polyester and polyamide granules are simultaneously pushed (extruded) through tools, each containing 72 pie-shaped segments. (Fig. 1)
Each circular shape contains segments of polyester and eight segments of polyamide, where traces of oil separate the two polymers so that they do not mix.
In the next step, the polyester used to form the polyamide is removed with an alkaline solution. (Fig. 2)
Fig. 3) Shows the polyester starting point – a star shape and the individual polyamide filaments before splitting.
(Fig. 4) The wedge-shaped fibre.
The splitting process is then carried out, where the polyester is corroded in a controlled chemical process that splits the microfibres to create hollow openings in the fibre and wraps the fibres to give the fabric strength and integrity.
As a result, the fabric contains fibres down to 0.2 denier per filament, while most of the permeability and processing benefits of a 3-denier fibre are retained.
(Fig. 5) The core consists of 20% nylon and 80% polyester.
(Fig. 6) At the end of the process, the split filament is achieved (16 split segments per “pie slice”, 72 “pie slices” per filament per square inch of fabric).
Unsplit filaments work in the same way as ordinary synthetic yarns, and these fibres are normally used for cleaning cloths and towels.
The split filament used in AllerGuard to weave the microfibre fabric has improved moisture-absorbing properties due to the capillary effect.
The filaments are intertwined into a yarn and then woven into a microfibre fabric (Fig. 7).
Our microfibre products have characteristics and properties, for example greater absorbency, durability and effectiveness, which make them more desirable than conventional cotton products. Many of these attractive properties result from the larger surface area of the fabric, which is the result of the splitting process.
Technically, microfibres are not absorbent because the fibres do not absorb water in the same way that cotton fibres do. Instead, they simply trap water in the space between the thousands of fibres. Microfibres take up liquids through the capillary effect, a phenomenon in which liquid flows against gravity through channels in the fabric.
The thousands of fibres surround and lock in the water molecules, preventing them from escaping. This gives microfibres the ability to absorb up to eight times their weight in water (sweat).
Because microfibres also do not absorb water, they dry much more easily because the water is simply pushed out of the spaces where it is held instead of having to dry in the normal way.
This is also one of the reasons why elite athletes only use microfibre clothing.
The filaments in AllerGuard are so fine that if a fibre made from these filaments stretched from London to Hong Kong, it would weigh only 350 grams.
(Fig. 8) shows a cross-section of the woven AllerGuard material and demonstrates the coverage achieved by twisting and adjusting the filaments during the finishing of the fabric.
The fibres spread effectively across the weave junction – a critical point for particle passage in conventional textiles.
At the same time, the overall fabric surface is evened out, significantly reducing surface depressions, which are weak points for surface contamination in conventional textiles.
(Fig. 9) The tightly woven fabric made from these fine fibres blocks mites or dust from penetrating through the fabric.
AllerGuard is therefore effective in preventing you from coming into contact with mites and allergenic dust simply by covering the bedding you already have.
Moisture permeability
((Fig. 10) AllerGuard’s moisture permeability is extremely high because of the special capillary effect created by the triangular filaments.
It is even higher than cotton fabric, as shown below.
As a user, you will notice this because the fabric dries much faster than cotton.
The illustration shows the permeability of AllerGuard fabric compared with normal cotton using the same amount of coloured water.
Effect of using allergen-proof covers
It has been mentioned in the press that there is doubt about whether the use of allergen-proof covers is beneficial for people with house dust mite allergy.
Unfortunately, this coverage has meant that some families have doubted the beneficial effect and have therefore not received sufficient help.
The reason is that some people with a different political objective than helping have created doubt and use non-prospective, non-double-blind and non-placebo-controlled studies as their basis.
One of the best and most serious studies can be seen on the Danish page: Study of the effect of allergen-proof covers.
It is shown here that the use of medication for asthma treatment based on house dust mite allergy can be reduced by approximately 50% by using allergy-friendly mattress covers.
Using AllerGuard
For comfort and to protect the AllerGuard cover so that it does not need to be washed as often, we recommend using a cotton sheet on top of the mattress cover.
The AllerGuard envelope cover is pulled over the mattress and closed with the zip.
