COVID-19 has caused widespread sickness, death, economic instability, and untold fear. However, it has shown, despite our differences and current polarization, that we can still make personal sacrifices to keep our communities, our country, and our world healthy and safe. This is a time for optimism and stoicism and it’s an opportunity to learn how to come together to solve important problems.
The Hersey Clutch Company joined many others who have retooled their production lines to offset the strained demand for medical equipment. As a family business having personal ties to medical professionals working in ICUs, it was important to use our skills and equipment to help them and many others.
Face Shields
Our flexible in-house manufacturing capabilities enabled us to rapidly pivot to turn raw materials into PPE. We used our OMAX 5555 Waterjet to cut PETG sheet for the shield itself and 1” thick urethane for forehead foam. With our nesting software and our in-house developed modular fixturing, all the parts for the shields were cut within two days of finalized design. The first batch was delivered within one week of inception of the project.
Our local police departments in Brewster, MA was one of the organizations that received our face masks. They expressed their appreciation in a Facebook post:
“A huge thank you to Dick Hersey and Brian Baronousky-Chin from Hersey Clutch Company in Orleans. They made full face shields and donated them to The Brewster Police Department. These face shields will undoubtedly protect our officers as we continue to work during this pandemic. Thank you!”
Getinge
Getinge, a customer we have worked with for years, is a global leader in the field of Surgical Workflows. The sterilizers and autoclaves they manufacture play an important role in enabling hospitals to maximize their capacity to treat as many patients with the best possible care. We were able to quickly to supply them with parts they needed in a matter of days to deliver more sterilization machines quickly to deploy them to help protect healthcare workers.
Service Specialties/Liftco
Another customer of ours, Liftco, produces mobile command centers for government and military use. Our overload protection products are used on their vehicles to prevent equipment from becoming damaged in transit or during setup.
In response to the pandemic, they converted their mobile command centers to rapid response vehicles for civilian use to deal with the increased health care demand. As an essential manufacturer we were able to help in their efforts by getting them components for their important vehicles quickly.
Moving forward
As we continue our efforts to end Covid-19, we have all learned lessons from the roles we have played that can prepare us to respond more effectively to similar events in the future.
As manufacturers, we will be ready to respond to the next crisis with new solutions and experience to build the products that the world will depend on to stay healthy and safe.