Coatings plant shifts to making hand sanitizer
10,000 litres among company’s donations to health-care groups
BASF Canada’s Windsor plant is known for producing coatings for the automotive industry and refinishing market, but it has pivoted in only a matter of weeks to begin producing hand sanitizer.
The plant has made 3,500 litres of sanitizer since April 13 with plans for another 3,000 litres in the next two weeks to be distributed across the country to help battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Combined with the hand sanitizer being imported from BASF’S Wyandotte, Mich. plant, the company will donate 10,000 litres in the next week to Canadian healthcare organizations.
“It’s been awesome,” said Windsor site director Jeff Klevering of the experience for employees and the company.
“There was a lot of outreach from our (employees) in mid-march after seeing Health Canada saying we’re running out of hand sanitizer.
“People were coming to (management) saying, ‘We’re a chemical manufacturing site, can’t we do something?’ Everyone has been really excited to be involved.”
An internal contest produced the appropriate name of Vanquish for the product.
“The biggest challenge was following Health Canada’s guidelines,” said Klevering, who oversees 180 employees when the plant is at full capacity.
“Automotive coatings go on vehicles, but hand sanitizer goes on people’s skin. There’s a different rule book for products used by people.”
Klevering also credited the University of Windsor for its role in testing the raw materials used to ensure they met Health Canada’s standards.
“We didn’t have the equipment for that, so we reached out to the university,” Klevering said. “Most of our engineers and scientists at the plant come from the university, so we knew where to look for help.”
It took about two weeks of consultations with Health Canada and cleaning of the plant to get ready for production. BASF also invested in some new machines to ensure government standards were met.
“About 15 to 20 employees have been involved,” Klevering said.
“A group worked on Health Canada’s requirements. We had another group sourcing materials and the third group was involved in the production.”
Klevering said they couldn’t completely automate the process, so filling the five-litre plastic containers is done manually.
How much sanitizer the company will end up producing depends on the availability of raw materials.
It’s been awesome. People were coming to (management) saying, ‘We’re a chemical manufacturing site, can’t we do something?’
The plant is using isopropyl alcohol in its sanitizer but, like food-grade ethanol, it has become in short supply due to COVID-19.
“We have quite a few purchasing personnel and we used most of them,” Klevering said. “We used our weight to find stuff, but you don’t always get delivery of all of the stuff you order.”
Twenty-five cases of hand sanitizer have been kept for use locally with the rest sent to BASF’S Toronto warehouse for distribution to health-care organizations across Canada.
In addition to hand sanitizer, BASF Canada has donated disinfectants, masks, gloves and protective suits.
It’s also working with farmers to ensure the food supply chain remains strong and teamed with Food Banks Canada on a virtual food drive. For every dollar employees raise, BASF will match it up to $100,000.