San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
GM GETS OK TO MAKE N95 FACE MASKS
After months of waiting, General Motors received certification to start making N95 face masks at its facility in Warren, Mich.
The approval comes as cases of coronavirus are escalating in some parts of the country such as Florida and Texas where front-line workers need the air-tight face masks to treat infected patients.
The N95 masks are actually filtering facepiece respirators that require a complex four-step process to make, GM spokesman Monte Doran said earlier this month. That is why they require approval by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The difference between an N95 and a flat mask is the N95 creates a tight seal across the face where the f lat mask does not and that makes them more complicated to make than flat masks,” Doran told the (Detroit) Free Press. “It takes more manual processing; it requires four different stations whereas f lat masks can be done at one.”
The process to get certification went faster than GM had expected, Doran said. GM started it in early April when it installed the equipment to start making the face masks at the Michigan plant. Shortly after it started operating, GM sent its application for N95 approval to the CDC for testing and, “here we are in July and we have final certification,” Doran said.
GM is making about 3 million flat face masks per month. Doran estimates the production of N95 masks will be fewer. It will likely be an additional 20percent in production. He declined to provide a specific number at this early stage.
GM has donated more than 4 million flat face masks to frontline workers and 230,000 face shields, also made at the Michigan facility, since early April, Doran said.
“We are producing the N95 masks now,” Doran said. “Some of the production will be donated to frontline workers and some will be used at GM’S facilities.”
GM will not need to add jobs to start making the N95 masks, Doran said.
“We have staffed up to run the line so we are at employment capacity,” said Doran.