Lydall Inc., Manchester, Conn., has signed a $13.5 million contract award with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that will support the company’s investment in two new production lines for meltblown nonwovens at its Rochester, N.H., facility. The company had previously announced the addition of one line, and the DoD contract supports and accelerates its capacity increases for this filtration media critical in the production of N95 respirators and surgical masks. Lydall reports by May 2021 it expects to produce enough media for 140 million N95 respirators or 540 million surgical masks, as well as air filtration media for indoor spaces.
The investment will turn Lydall’s Rochester plant into the largest U.S. site for meltblown filtration media production, according to the company.
“We are incredibly thankful to the U.S. government for recognizing the importance of accelerating domestic production of N95 and surgical face masks and providing the grant we need to do just that,” said Sara A. Greenstein, president and CEO, Lydall. “We have done everything within our capacity to ramp up our production of filtration media for N95 respirators and surgical face masks. With the support of the U.S. government, we will increase production even further.”
The contract award is a product of the ongoing collaboration between the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services, led by the Department’s Joint Acquisition Task Force and funded through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
July/August 2020
