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| Image added in response to a comment by Roger. Thanks, Roger. |
I have a brother who has more than a passing acquaintance with the manufacturing processes used to make burger pods, disposable cups and the like.
I pointed out that one of the Big Three auto makers bragged about making 2000 N-95 masks in their first shift of production.
My brother didn't quite smirk.
I asked him what a typical plant that makes "killing the planet" disposable burger pods makes in a shift. He said "Anywhere between 2 million and 6 million units. They often run three shifts a day so call it 6m to 18m units a day."
Granted, paper and EPS cups are not spun-bonded poly-pro but conceivably some of the same technologies could be used. That is, heat stamping, di-electric bonding and the like. The transfer equipment would have to be adapted and elastic hand-stapled but that is immensely faster than sewing.
Point being, if everybody who provides medical care is supposed to change PPE between patients then 2000 masks will disappear in a heartbeat. 18 million units in a day, though, that gets peoples attention.
I see the bottleneck as being the hand stapling of the elastic straps onto each mask. However, there is no reason why the masks could not be stamped out with slots already there for the straps. Then when the line reaches the packaging stage, the straps are automatically dropped into each box or bag of masks.
ReplyDeleteWhat in the world is a burger pod???
ReplyDeleteMy bad. Burger clamshells: https://www.drinkstuff.com/productimg/131635_large.jpg
DeleteWell, everything has a name I suppose.
Delete1+
ReplyDeleteNice thought.
ReplyDeleteNever let perfection get in the way of close enough.