Quick Hits: 3M Wants to Make a Billion Masks in 2020

The company is using “surge capacity” to expand production of N95 masks amid the pandemic.

Tim HayesContributing Editor, Healthcare Packaging

Apr 7th, 2020

A recent Bloomberg article discussed 3M Co.’s ambitious plans to produce a billion masks this year. The company’s respirator mask factory in Aberdeen, South Dakota has been planning to increase production capacity since mid-January to meet the spike in demand for protective gear.

The wildfires in Australia and an active volcano in the Philippines had already pushed the factory to increase production, but they will now shift to “surge capacity.” This means machines that had been sitting idle for precisely this reason will be activated, and the plant’s 650 employees will start working overtime immediately.

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Consolidation Threatening CPG-OEM Relationships

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At the[PACK]out, presenting 'Wicked Stability: Predicting the Aging Degradation of Materials' were speakers (from left): Dan Burgess, Henk Blom, and Rod Patch w/ Moderator Seema Momin.

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5. PulseNmore ES is an ultrasound device for home use. Credit: Good Design Awards and The Chicago Athenaeum.

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AMERIPEN: ‘New Recycled Content Mandates Doomed To Fail’

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FDA Permits Marketing for Test to Improve Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease

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The syringes and needles that Sharp packs are manually inserted into preformed, automatically fed blisters on the KDT medplus.

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Prefilled Enteral Pouch Wins Highest 2022 FPA Award

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Johnson & Johnson Chief Medical Officer Highlights Unit Dose Packaging’s Role in Preventing Accidental Ingestion

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The facility currently ships more than 200 million units annually across 200 product categories to hospitals, doctor’s offices, commercial pharmacies, and retail outlets nationwide.

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