Livermore Calif.-based injection molder Westec Plastics Corp. was deemed an essential business when shutdowns hit the state, John Baker, director of sales at Livermore, told Plastics News. Its existing medical customers transitioned their point-of-care diagnostic testing products to be used for COVID-19 testing, Baker said.
Westec implemented social-distance policies, cleaning schedules and barriers between workstations to meet state requirements for the plant.
"It was kind of a constant change for the first month and a half," Baker said. "Almost on a daily basis the requirements were changing."
The company purchased five new molding machines this year to meet "highly accelerated" demand from its customers, he said.
"We were able to react quickly and responsibly … and to ensure our employees were staying safe and healthy," Baker said.
Two of the new machines with mobile clean rooms are in production currently and three more will arrive at the end of October, he added, which will also be placed in a newly outfitted clean room.
"Those machines are geared to produce a million parts a month for a specific customer," Baker said. "We"re taking some very calculated risks to invest in the equipment and facility infrastructure to accommodate their needs."
Westec has also seen a "tremendous increase" of companies looking to reshore product due to the pandemic, Baker said, and has grown about 10 percent in medical sales this year.
"All of the planning we"ve had to do … purchasing new equipment, clean room support equipment, a complete relayout of our production facility, increasing additional space for assemblies on these products," he said, "it"s really been a companywide, plantwide effort."
DeForest, Wis.-based Evco Medical had expected "large growth" this year, Kate Bashir, strategic sales executive, told Plastics News, but it saw demand rise in sectors it had not predicted.
"Our medical business ramped up significantly as a few of our customers make parts for COVID test kits," Bashir said.
"Traditionally we work weekends as needed," she said. "To staff up for full-time 24/7 production was challenging, but we"re working through it."
Evco anticipates retaining the "significant rise" in demand from its medical customers through the fourth quarter of 2020, Bashir said, though it has seen some of its other customers, in sectors including agriculture and appliance, pick up again in the third quarter.
"Our main priority was keeping our people employed," she said.
Evco designed a molded headband for face shields, which was made available on Amazon. That development gave Evco"s employees work and a way to "contribute something positive" to the fight against the pandemic, Bashir said.
"Forecasting and planning ahead for what those employees could do while the nonessential market customers were down" was a challenge, she said. "We were able to take some operators from another plant and move them to our medical business."
When Troy, Mich.-based Cadillac Products Automotive Co. and its sister firm Cadillac Products Packaging Co. moved to make film to donate protective gowns to tri-state area hospitals, it started receiving inquiries from new customers for the material, Casey Turner, sales and marketing specialist at Cadillac, said.
"It has turned into a good business, and we"re running a dedicated line making the material," Turner told Plastics News.
Cadillac has also been supplying materials for flexible packaging for soap and hand sanitizers, he said.
"We see that continuing as people change their hygiene habits," Turner said. "We"ve also developed a release film for polyester face shields.