Bristol businesses churning out thousands of shield masks

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Like everyone else, Phil Kinder has been both captivated and impacted by the coronavirus taking over all aspects of daily life. And he heard the call, day after day, from state leaders asking private businesses for help.

So two Mondays ago, he got on the phone. He first called the Rhode Island Department of Health, then the Rhode Island Emergency Management office. Finally he got on the phone with a woman from Lifespan, which operates three of the biggest hospitals in Rhode Island — Rhode Island, Hasbro Children’s, Newport and Miriam. She connected him to the voicemail for Lifespan’s facilities manager.

In less than an hour, he got a call back. Mr. Kinder asked the man what they needed. “He said, ‘I really need supplies. I really need shields,’ ” Mr. Kinder said.

A week later, Kinder Industries, a small Bristol company that specializes in custom canvas products, like elegant sails or everyday awnings, a company with fewer than 10 people, had the raw materials for 60,000 shield masks. Four days later, they and another Bristol sail company had combined to manufacture 8,000 shield masks for use in the Rhode Island hospitals that are on the front lines of the battle against Covid-19.

“I’m so tired,” Mr. Kinder said on Friday. “We’re all so tired.” He and six others worked 12-hour shifts, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and hand-assembled 4,000 shield masks.

Though experts in canvas products, including for some of the world’s most majestic boats, Kinder Industries, located inside the small Tupelo Cove business park, had never manufactured anything like this before. The shield masks are neither fancy nor elegant, but they meet all the federal CDC regulations for healthcare workers trying to avoid being infected.

“It’s basically just piecework. It’s pretty easy,” Mr. Kinder said. But it is definitely tedious, and it is definitely monotonous.

A very manual process

The first step is cutting the plastic shields from large rolls of sheet plastic. Those are being cut on a machine, but Kinder does not have a machine to make the curved cut at the bottom of the shield, so those are being cut by hand.

The next step is application of a foam strip, also hand-cut, which is taped at the top of the mask, to be worn on the forehead.

The only real skilled labor comes from the seamstress, who attaches the flexible band that goes around the user’s head.

The final step is to hand-wipe and sanitize each mask, one by one, slip it into a protective sleeve and box it up for delivery.

“We’ve learned a lot in a week,” Mr. Kinder said. They tried different templates, tested different samples, even invented a couple of small tools to help speed things along.

They’re not alone. Just up the road on Tupelo Street, Thurston Sails & Canvas took a batch of Kinder’s raw materials and assembled 4,000 more shield masks. Those 8,000 fill half of Lifespan’s initial order. “Originally they wanted to buy about 8,000 shields, and within a day they doubled the order to 16,000 … and then they asked us for materials to have volunteers make more at the hospital,” Mr. Kinder said.

Both canvas companies will be back at work all next week to complete the order.

Getting started

When Mr. Kinder first talked to Lifespan, he didn’t have the raw material or know how to get it. So he began by getting small batches of the materials from some of their local vendors and began testing different designs.

Things ramped up quickly when they found a distributor in North Carolina with large quantities of the sheet plastic. “It’s basically windsurfer sail material,” Mr. Kinder said.

That’s where well-known businessman and philanthropist Joe Brito Jr. came on the scene. Mr. Kinder and Mr. Brito were talking about the situation, and Mr. Brito put things into overdrive. He fronted the money for the materials from North Carolina and sent a truck there and back — twice — to get it here as quickly as possible.

To be clear, Kinder, Thurston and Brito are not donating the masks to Lifespan — they’re selling them. But the two canvas companies put all other business on hold, including projects from some of their wealthy boat customers, to prioritize the mask production.

“I’m so tired,” Mr. Kinder said on Friday. “I’ve been doing this for two weeks, nonstop. I’ve hit the wall.”

They planned to stop for the weekend, but cranks things back up again on Monday. The state needs thousands of these masks as quickly as possible.

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.