Materials firms Chroma Color Corp. and Americhem Inc. are providing products for healthcare and other industries during the COVID-19 crisis.
McHenry, Ill.-based Chroma provides color compounds and concentrates based on a wide range of resins for food and health care packaging, medical devices and equipment and other applications from seven manufacturing plants.
"The Chroma leadership team is amazed at how employees, customers [and] suppliers are facing this unprecedented crisis," CEO Tom Bolger said in an email to Plastics News. "I believe having the plastics industry work together as partners, we will reduce the impact of COVID-19 and make our industry more robust and prepared for the future."
Food and health care applications for Chroma materials include packaging for yogurt, soup, ice cream, feminine hygiene, pharmaceuticals, and skincare. Chroma also supplies molders of medical devices and equipment with color for catheter tubes, meter housings and respiratory care devices.
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio-based Americhem is giving priority to all COVID-19 related orders. The firm also is continuing to make a wide range of products with antimicrobial properties, including additives sold under the nShield brand name.
Americhem's nShield additives restrain microorganisms from growing, officials said, and are used in a wide range of synthetic fibers applications and plastic parts. Common personal safety and protection uses for nShield additives include masks, gowns and gloves.
CEO Matthew Hellstern said in a statement that Americhem "plays an important role in manufacturing some critical products ultimately used directly or indirectly in the fight against COVID-19. Together, we are helping many people and making a difference."
Hellstern also thanked Americhem's customers "for trusting in us to be their supplier of choice during this trying time."
"We will overcome this together," he added.
Americhem's Engineered Compounds unit also makes materials that are used in medical devices and health care. Applications for these materials include ventilators, diagnostic equipment and portable oxygen tanks.
In a March 31 LinkedIn post, Americhem officials said that in late March, a customer ordered 6,000 pounds of a material used in the production of ventilators. The firm was able to fill that order in 48 hours, they added.