Milliken & Company in Spartanburg is helping create needed personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic amid a shortage of plastic materials for health care workers.
The shortage, according to the company, has led some PPE manufacturers to produce protective face shields using polypropylene plastic. But due to the haziness of the material, PPE producers are now turning to Milliken’s NX UltraClear polypropylene concentrate to manufacture plastics with the clarity healthcare workers need on protective face shields.
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Milliken manufactures products such as specialty chemicals, healthcare, floor covering and protective textiles.
The company is just one of several manufacturers in the Upstate that have pivoted some of their production lines to include PPE and other items that can be used by health care facilities and other companies to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Other Upstate companies have begun producing hand sanitizer and disinfectants as the demand and need for those have increased during the pandemic.
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“In this global pandemic, the need for medical PPE continues to rise,” Halsey Cook, president and CEO of Milliken & Company said in a release. “We are committed to finding solutions that assist our customers and allow us to join in the fight against COVID-19 wherever we can make a difference.”
Milliken worked with plastic producers to evaluate NX UltraClear’s use in making these face shields. In the U.S., Impact Plastics is using the product to make polypropylene clear PPE. Plascony in Brazil and Mezger in Germany are also using the concentrates, according to Milliken. Face shields made with NX UltraClear polypropylene are already available in the market.
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