{"id":4104,"date":"2020-04-30T16:19:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T16:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/?p=4104"},"modified":"2020-05-08T16:28:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T16:28:29","slug":"nc-manufacturers-ppe-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/nc-manufacturers-ppe-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Thank You North Carolina Furniture and Textile Manufacturers For Producing Critically Needed PPE For Front Line Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last Updated Friday, May 8, 2020<\/div> \n

We\u2019d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our wonderful North Carolina furniture and textile industry partners that stepped up in this time of crisis to creatively find solutions and work together to utilize their factories, resources, and skilled craftsmen to manufacture critically needed PPE for our health care professionals and front line responders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Carolina\u2019s furniture and textile industries have played a major role in the production and distribution of medical supplies needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic.  A group of 200 American manufacturers in collaboration with The Carolina Textile District<\/a>, EJ Victor Furniture<\/a>, The Industrial Commons<\/a> and Manufacturing Solutions Center<\/a>, joined forces to help fulfill an urgent need and request that was presented by local healthcare professionals to produce medical supplies and personal protective equipment that would help safeguard their front line workers who were treating severely contagious COVID-19 patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Carolina manufacturers worked quickly retooling production lines that are normally used to make apparel and furniture and created prototypes of both masks and gowns.  They are also using reclaimed furniture fabric to make N95 mask covers, which extends the life of these lifesaving masks since many health care professionals have limited supplies and are forced to wear them much longer than recommended.  By washing and disinfecting these mask covers daily, front line workers are able to continue to use their current masks until new supplies are able to arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Hickory Springs, a division of HSM Solutions of North Carolina<\/a> has grown from a small producer of furniture springs into a leading supplier of diversified components for the bedding, furniture, and GSA industries.  Their North Carolina production facilities operate in Hickory, Claremont, Conover, Hiddenite, High Point, Lenoir, and Micaville.  Hickory Springs started producing and shipping out masks, gowns, and medical mattresses to health care facilities to alleviate a nationwide shortage of PPE.  They already had the raw materials on hand and sewing equipment in place, so their company designed a pleating machine, reset their overall production layout, and re-sanitized all their facilities, moving from product design to conception within 30 days.  They have already shipped over 40,000 gowns and expect to double production quickly.  The company also developed a unique medical mattress, which uses a special nylon cover that makes it easier to wipe down and disinfect in between patients.  They are now manufacturing 4,000 of these mattresses along with 2,000 free-standing metal beds daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kingsdown of Mebane, North Carolina<\/a> also quickly switched their normal bedding manufacturing facilities over to producing easily sanitized beds for hospitals.  Once that need was filled, they started receiving more urgent requests for additional PPE so they pivoted from producing hospital mattresses and started making other PPE in their 9 North Carolina manufacturing facilities to fulfill additional state partner requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EJ Victor Furniture of Morganton, North Carolina<\/a> immediately converted their production lines over, connected with local sewing facilities, and began their production of critically needed medical gowns, mask covers, and triage cots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fairfield Chair of Lenior, North Carolina<\/a> retooled and shifted their daily production of chairs and sofas to surgical gowns that have been in high demand with very limited resources available. The upholstered seating manufacturer took a crash course on apparel patternmaking and studied industry specs switching their focus to surgical gown production overnight.  Fairfield Chair produced its first samples in a little over a week and immediately received approval on the prototype from Blue Ridge Healthcare in North Carolina, which placed an initial order for 1,200 gowns.  They are now also working with many local North Carolina Senior Living facilities to help equip their employees with much needed protective gear to keep their staff and residents safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design Foundry of Hickory, North Carolina<\/a> partnered with Carolina Textile District<\/a> in an effort to support those on the front lines of the pandemic.  From planning to production within a month\u2019s time, they were able to roll up their sleeves and pitch in to help produce hospital gowns for the North Carolina hospital system.  They are truly thankful to be a part of such a great collective effort. This allowed them to honor those who have worked so tirelessly on the front lines and they wish to thank all of the healthcare workers who they feel are the ultimate true heroes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams of Taylorsville, North Carolina<\/a> has sent out over 6,000 hospital gowns and has ramped up their production now to 8,000-10,000 gowns per week, which will be used for health care providers in both North Carolina and South Carolina.  The company\u2019s leaders hope that this effort will inspire others to join the many businesses that have shifted their American manufacturing efforts to support health care workers in the Carolinas and around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee Industries of Conover, North Carolina<\/a>, Brookline Furniture of Archdale, North Carolina<\/a>, and American Leather of Dallas, TX<\/a> are all part of American Leather Holdings, LLC.  They have shifted production in their 3 furniture manufacturing facilities, to produce approximately 10,000-20,000 masks per week and 4,000-5,000 gowns per week that will directly support physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Precedent Furniture of Newton, North Carolina<\/a> has also shifted over to producing protective masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huntington House of Bethlehem<\/a> felt empowered to be able to help fight COVID-19 from its factory floors.  They have been producing both medical-grade masks for healthcare workers and personal masks for members of their own local community.  Even though they are restarting their furniture production this week, they will continue to produce masks as long as they are needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCreary Modern of Newton, North Carolina<\/a> has researched and developed two different types of masks.  One is a special reusable mask that covers an N95 mask in order to extend its life and the other is a disposable pleated mask.  Both are being produced and distributed to Hospice of Catawba County in North Carolina and nationwide as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor King of Taylorsville, North Carolina<\/a> announced they are producing N95 mask face coverings for medical workers after hearing that medical personnel were wearing their masks all day long and in some cases, they were sharing masks over three different shifts. Other employees were dealing with broken straps and some were even using bobby pins just to hold them in place. The coverings they are producing will fit over medical grade N95 masks and help prolong the life of each mask making them safer for those who need to use them for long periods of time. There are six employees dedicated specifically to producing these mask covers inside the Taylor King factory while working under strict social distancing guidelines. Everyone graciously volunteered for the project understanding the importance of contributing what they could from their North Carolina factory. They are using their Gerber cutting machine to precisely snip out the tightly woven, 100% cotton fabric, then they sew four pieces of this material into each double-sided mask cover. So far they have produced over 2,000 mask covers and have distributed them all within their home state of North Carolina to major hospitals, local nursing home workers, doctors\u2019 offices, and local front line workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valdese Weavers of Valdese, North Carolina<\/a> is a textile company and steadfast partner of the furniture industry.  They are currently utilizing their fabrics and expert sewers to make masks for North Carolina hospitals as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bossong Hosiery of Asheboro, North Carolina<\/a> is manufacturing and distributing a surgical mask that was invented by nufabrx, a biomaterials technology company in Conover, North Carolina.  Working with the Manufacturing Solutions Center of Conover, North Carolina, nufabrx designed a non-disposable, antimicrobial fabric for masks that contains copper threads. The masks can be worn during the day, tossed in a home washer and dryer at night, then worn again the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As needs change daily within North Carolina and around the world, many manufacturers continue to step up to the plate to help and add to the growing list of partners proactively and graciously responding to COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Manufacturing Solutions Center of Conover, North Carolina<\/a> is a facility where innovative concepts may be put through the different processes of design, research, and development.  Products and prototypes are tested, manufacturing processes are fine-tuned and accurate cost and product studies are performed.  All of these services are available to manufacturers to help them stay at the forefront of their industry while continuing to grow and thrive in local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Industrial Commons of Morganton, North Carolina<\/a> founds and grows interconnected enterprises that solve industrial problems for businesses and workers and manufactures hope for the people of Western North Carolina.  They lead from their factory floors and use their collective experience by building out solutions in manufacturing clusters that address business resiliency, worker agency, and environmental issues all while using the extensive resources and assets available to them within the Western North Carolina region.  They proudly bring workers and manufacturers together to find triple-bottom-line solutions to entrenched manufacturing issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Carolina Textile District partnership group has signed up over 100 companies with cut and sew capabilities that have offered to help make mask covers and hospital gowns as soon as they receive the raw materials needed to produce them.  While N95 masks are difficult to manufacture, the group decided to make special covers for masks after meeting with local doctors who decided they needed to come up with a plan to safely reuse masks while actual new masks continue to remain in short supply.  Mask covers are produced much quicker and may be washed and re-used while waiting for additional supplies to arrive.  The group has produced over 2,000 mask covers already. The cloth material needed to make FEMA approved PPE must be treated with an antimicrobial application and these materials are also currently in short supply nationwide but a shipment of materials is expected to arrive this week with enough fabric to produce approximately 300,000 additional mask covers and at least 20,000 hospital gowns.  Once the group obtains even more raw materials, they will more than likely be able to increase their production capability to over 500,000 mask covers per week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Carolina Textile District<\/a> and partners have launched a website to handle the intake of demand from healthcare providers and intake of manufacturers that are willing to assist in the production process and provide supplies. 
(https:\/\/www.carolinatextiledistrict.com\/covid19-response<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are a manufacturer with cut and sew capacity or with medical fabrics and materials, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you would like to order PPE for your health care facility or organization click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about statewide COVID-19 manufacturing efforts and partnerships, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Updated Friday, May 8, 2020 We\u2019d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our wonderful North Carolina furniture and textile industry partners that stepped up in this time of crisis to creatively find solutions and work together to utilize their factories, resources, and skilled craftsmen to manufacture critically needed PPE for our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":4109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4104"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4123,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions\/4123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4104"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickoryfurniture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}