The idea struck two weeks ago, while Tony van Veen and his wife were watching the news.
“We were seeing the increasingly panicked pleas about what shortages there are in protective supplies for medical personnel,” van Veen says. “And [my wife] goes ‘couldn’t you guys make some of this?’”
Van Veen is CEO of Disc Makers, a Pennsauken-based manufacturer of CDs and vinyl for independent artists to sell at their concerts — shows that have all been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak, delivering a near-fatal blow to van Veen’s company.
“Overnight, our business dropped by half.”
It was the perfect storm; Disc Makers needed a new product to keep its 280 employees on staff and there was a fresh, gaping hole in the manufacturing market as medical professionals begged for extra supplies.
In a week, Disc Makers became a hub for plastic face shield manufacturing — 100 workers producing thousands of units everyday. By the end of this week, van Veen expects the 125,000-square-foot facility to each day be manufacturing 40,000 shields, which are used in conjunction with face masks to protect nurses and doctors from sprayed particles as they treat thousands of COVID-19 cases across the country.
“Patients who are sick with coronavirus are coughing and sneezing ... these droplets can travel five to six feet before they drop to the ground,” says Aline Holmes, Clinical Associate Professor at Rutgers University’s School of Nursing, speaking to the importance of the shields. “We use the face shields as an adjunct to the mask in areas where we are working with patients in open areas, like an emergency department, before we can get them into isolation.”
Disc Makers joins an increasing list of manufacturers who have rerouted their businesses to produce personal protective equipment for medical professionals. Other New Jersey-based companies like The Tablecloth Company in Paterson and Eclipse International in New Brunswick (a mattress manufacturer) are now making masks.
Workers assemble protective face shields at the Disc Makers facility in Pennsauken. (Tony Van Veen)
Shifting Disc Makers’ focus happened at breakneck speed, van Veen says. Within 48 hours of watching the news, his team had a working prototype for the reusable clear shields. Now, orders are already being filled for hospitals and medical sites throughout the Delaware Valley and as far away as Los Angeles. New Jersey orders so far include Virtua and AtlantiCare Health Systems in South Jersey, he says.
Van Veen adds that while the shields are being sold, not donated, he’s selling them for as low a price as possible while still keeping his factory open.
“This is not a time to be profiteering from these products,” he says. “So we're working very closely on margins and close to cost.”
Van Veen worked with medical professionals to approve the design, he says, and the shields are being hand-assembled in a controlled environment with workers stationed six feet apart. The workers also gloves, hairnets, masks and shields of their own while assembling, he adds.
Van Veen is already working on a second design for shields that provide protection beneath the wearer’s chin, not just around the face. He says there are no current plans to produce masks, ventilators or any other medical supplies as his manufacturing equipment — which until last week was largely used to produce 30 million disks a year — is limited in its modification abilities.
“We don't have sewing skills, but we have assembly skills,” he says.
Disc Makers' facility in Pennsauken. (Tony Van Veen)
Orders are being taken now on the Disc Makers website. Disc Makers is a subsidiary of DIY Media Group, which also owns Merchly (for independent artists’ merchandise) BookBaby (for independent authors).
Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier and Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.