GM gets approval to make N95 face masks
After months of waiting, General Motors received certification to start making N95 face masks at its facility in Warren, Michigan.
The approval comes as cases of coronavirus are rising in some parts of the country such as Florida and Texas where front-line workers need the airtight face masks to treat infected patients.
The N95 masks are actually filtering face-piece respirators that require a complex four-step process to make, GM spokesman Monte Doran said Tuesday. 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 flat mask does not and that makes them more complicated to make than flat masks,” Doran told the Free Press.
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 Warren. 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 20% 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 Warren facility, since early April, Doran said.
Since early April, GM has also been building ventilators at its plant in Kokomo, Indiana, for Ventec Life Systems. GM is on-track to fulfill its contract to build 30,000 ventilators by the end of August, GM spokesman Jim Cain said.
Achieving an N95 rating required a new manufacturing process with four separate stations, he said.
Station 1: Four layers of fabric are sandwiched together, tack-welded in place and then cut into rectangular “blanks.”
Station 2: Blanks are loaded into a template that welds the outer perimeter as well as the pocket for the wire nose piece.
Station 3: The wire nose piece is inserted, the blank is folded horizontally and a sonic weld in the shape of a hockey stick is installed from the nose to chin.
Station 4: The excess material is trimmed.