Sumner plastic company starts making medical face shields for coronavirus crisis
A 56-year-old family company in Sumner that produces plasticware for farmers began making plastic face shields recently to help equip health care providers responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
McConkey’s partial owner, Derek Moeller, said the company’s face shields already have gone to first responders and health care workers across Pierce County, Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The FBI has placed an order.
The McConkey plant, at 1615 Puyallup St., is set to produce about 20,000 shields a week. Moeller said once company officials realized they had the equipment to create medical protective gear, it wasn’t a question. Of the company’s 70 staff, 18 have been reassigned to make masks.
“The key thing is what happens if we don’t help?” he said. “(Health care workers) are brave to go into that position, and they deserve all the protection that they can get. If they are not protected or safe, our ability for hospital capacity goes way down, and that would be really tragic.”
Two weeks ago, Moeller and staff saw the need in protective medical supplies and began to see if they could help. Much of America’s medical protective gear is produced in China, where the government halted medical supply exports, creating a shortage, according to national news outlets.
Staff created a prototype design based on what they could produce and sent it to health care professionals to see if it would work, Moeller said. Once it was approved, they told Sumner and Pierce County government officials to get the word out to first responders and health care systems. Requests began flooding in.
“Every day, we get more orders in,” Moeller said.
Production began on March 27. Plastic recycled from water bottles is rolled out to create a clear, plastic sheet. The plastic is then stamped into the shape of a shield, and a headset is attached.
The company is continuing to supply farmers with the needed equipment to grow crops. McConkey is not making much of a profit on the face shields, Moeller said. The prices cover the price of raw materials and labor.
“If we can make a small dent in how we help, that’s our duty,” he said.
This story was originally published April 5, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
