Metalcraft in Mason City making face shields to be used as personal protective equipment in hospitals locally and statewide

MASON CITY — Metalcraft typically produces labels, barcodes and tags for tracking, but the Mason City company is now constructing face shields to be used as personal protective equipment in hospitals locally and throughout the state.

Chief Operating Officer Kyle Bermel says originally they thought about constructing respirators, but then the company’s vice president of sales suggested they shift their focus to face shields. He says last week members of their team developed prototype shields that could be used. He says they used a 3-D printer to construct the shields and then partner with Garner-based Stellar Industries which also wanted to find a way to help with making PPEs.  “It’s able to take filaments and melt it, and using basically ‘x’, ‘y’, and ‘z’ coordinates, place the filament in a certain spot, and then it cools and hardens, and makes a hardened plastic piece. Once we did that, other companies reached out like Stellar Industries. They’re using their 3-D printers to ramp up, and we’re supplying them the shields for it, so it’s been a great partnership too.”

Bermel says MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center in Mason City will be getting their first 50 masks tomorrow.  “I talked to their procurement official, and I guaranteed him that they are at the top of our list, because our main goal is to take care of North Iowa. That’s where our employees are, that’s where their families are, and that’s what we need to focus on first. We’ve also made a big commitment to the state of Iowa as well, and we’re supplying them down to Des Moines that will then be distributed out throughout the state. MercyOne North Iowa in town is our #1, and they’ll be receiving their first shipment on Friday.”

Bermel says the first shipment is only 50 masks because they want to make sure the prototypes are correct, with hospital employees being able to give feedback on any changes that need to be made. “They’ll get these 50 pieces, have people weaning them. We can make modifications on the fly, and if anything needs to change, we can do that on a smaller scale. They helped us out in development of the first one. We took them hand-made samples, and they provided their feedback initially, and now we’ll get them into more hands and get more feedback from what we’ll call the ‘customers’, the doctors and nurses out there on the front line. The more feedback we get, the better product modifications we’ll be able to make, and hopefully make a better product that keeps them safe.”

Bermel says currently they have commitments to make around 100,000 masks for not only MercyOne North Iowa but for around the state.