N.S. sign company pivots to face shields
Firm to make 60,000 plastic masks for health workers in coming weeks
HALIFAX—A small Halifax-area sign company has retooled itself to produce thousands of protective face shields for front-line health workers battling COVID-19. Dartmouth-based United Sign, which employs 18 people, says it will make up to 60,000 shields in the coming weeks, and will ship an order of 10,000 to the New Brunswick government this week. Company owner Matt Symes says they were able to find an open-source design for the shields, then had to scour around for scarce materials to make them.
Symes said the company’s designer, Jonathan Kummer, made more than 100 phone calls to small craft and sewing shops across rural Nova Scotia and was able to scrounge up enough elastic to make the straps for the shields.
He says they were looking for about 24 kilometres of elastic and were able to get enough from the small shops across the province to initially make 2,000 face shields.
Symes says he sees his company’s contribution as a “stopgap” measure, adding it will be able to produce shields for the Canadian and North American markets when necessary.
Another small Nova Scotia company has also geared up to produce face shields.
MacKenzie Atlantic in Musquodoboit Harbour inked an agreement to provide shields for the IWK Health Centre in Halifax and the Nova Scotia Health Authority.
MacKenzie, which typically manufactures items for the defence sector, is looking to produce one million face shields for the health authority and 100,000 for the IWK.
The health authority said Tuesday that an initial delivery of shields is expected next week, with production expected to escalate to 70,000 shields per week.