Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 19 M AY 1 8 , 2 0 2 0 S M A L L B U S I N E S S "What we're doing in Maine has completely blown me away," says Lisa Martin, Manufacturers Association of Maine's executive director. "Maine now has a substantial list of companies making PPE [personal protective equipment]. And it's growing." Folks are eager to step up. After a newspaper article ran in late March on Allen Manufacturing's efforts, David Allen was swamped with calls from home stitchers. "at first day we got 80 phone calls," he says. "Since then we've had 300 to 400 inquiries from people who want to make masks." Face shields At ermoformed Plastics of New England in Biddeford, owner Paul Tyson recalls a day in late March. Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah had just given a press conference and talked about the need for face shields. "A friend of mine called and said, 'Are you mak- ing face shields?'" Tyson says. "I went online to see what a face shield was." After some research, Tyson realized he had the correct material—thin, clear, virgin polyester—to make 12,500 wrap-around plastic pieces. He shipped those to other companies to complete the assem- blies, which were donated to medical facilities in Maine and New Hampshire. Orders poured in. Tyson sourced 40,000 pounds of plastic to produce 600,000 pieces for the assemblies, which are sold at cost. By late April, he also expected to donate another 5,000 shields to nonprofits. Typically, the company turns plastic into pre- cisely finished products for the medical, food, retail, automotive and pharmaceutical industries. e shields meant clearing out other orders, with employees working overtime to free up machine capacity. He also asked non-medical customers if they were willing to postpone their orders. "ey all said yes," Tyson says. In Gorham, Plas-Tech Inc. responded to Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership's call for help; its email listed PPE items in dire shortage. "Two of the things we were able to easily assist with were disposable face shields and intubation boxes," says Plas-Tech's owner, Terry Webber. e email included a link to an article about a Taiwanese doctor who had made an intubation box. e clear, three-sided box, with strategically placed holes, covers the patient's head and shoulders to contain aerosol spray, allowing medical person- nel to intubate safely. Plas-Tech made 264 for a Massachusetts company serving New England hospitals, 60 for Maine Medical Center, and single orders for hospitals around the country. Similarly, he obtained dimensions from a sample face shield, ordered materials for 25,000, and bought equipment to cut and attach elastic straps. "We designated an area of our facility to the production and moved a couple machines we used to this area, so we created a cell to process and assemble everything," Webber explains. "We started working later hours each day along with Saturdays for the last month in order to work on normal cus- tomer work and these projects." Hand sanitizer When the pandemic started, Luke Davidson thought he might have to close his company, Maine Craft Distilling, which makes spirits and canned cocktails in Portland. en a doctor called, asking him to look into making hand sanitizer. Davidson had 1,000 gallons of high-quality alcohol in stock, originally intended for his normal springtime distillations. Instead, using a World Health Organization formula, he sourced glycerin and hydrogen peroxide and mixed everything for a batch of sanitizer, producing 4,000 quarts of hand sanitizer in a matter of weeks. e process included making a charcoal column to filter impurities. "It's all hand-built by us with parts from NAPA and you name it," he says. "It started pumping out gallons and we did it literally overnight. e team has been amazing." e team filled a pallet's worth of vodka bottles, offered them at cost for $3 per bottle, and sold out quickly from the company's storefront. Customers picking up sanitizer often leave tips and charitable donations, which Davidson redirects to health care and other organizations. He's donated sani- tizer to the city of Portland and various organizations. "Suddenly the flood gates opened," he continues. "Requests started pouring in." When the vodka bottles ran out, Davidson called a friend at Oakhurst Dairy, which donated thousands of jugs. He ordered ketchup squeeze bottles for portable sanitizer. By late April, production was 8,000 gallons co-packaged for a larger facility in Massachusetts, plus 1,000 gallons sold from Maine Craft's facility. "Now we've hired six new people and we're nonstop 10 hours a day, seven days a week," he says. C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y PA U L T Y S O N At At Thermoformed Plastics Thermoformed Plastics of New England of New England in Biddeford, in Biddeford, Ryan Poisson Ryan Poisson and and Janis Janis Marriner Marriner package the plastic package the plastic portions of face shields, to portions of face shields, to send out for assembly with send out for assembly with headbands and elastic. headbands and elastic. F O C U S P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y N I C H O L E WO L F P H O T O G R A P H Y Luke Davidson Luke Davidson, founder , founder and CEO of Portland-based and CEO of Portland-based Maine Craft Distilling Maine Craft Distilling, which , which is producing hand sanitizer. is producing hand sanitizer.

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