Wisconsin thermoformer Placon creates face shield alliance, switches output to make PPE

Madison, Wis.-based thermoformer Placon Corp. created an alliance to help meet demand for face shield components amid the coronavirus pandemic.

CEO Dan Mohs explained the quick, five-day transition for three of its facilities to begin supplying face shield components to assemblers.

It started in March, when Placon donated materials to a group of University of Wisconsin professors who prototyped a face shield based on simple products.

Dubbed the "Badger shield," it included a clear plastic shield, a foam brow piece and a simplistic tie.

Placon had previously been working with the university on sustainability initiatives.

"It was something that was fun and easy to do to help them out, and we posted it on social media on a Friday and by Sunday we were getting calls from all over the place," Mohs said.

Ford Motor Co. was among the biggest customers to come calling for medical face shield materials they could use to assemble the shields. But many other companies that were adjusting their lines to produce face shields sought out Placon's materials.

The packaging giant then went from inquiry to production within five days.

"We tooled up our machinery, had daily meetings, sometimes twice per day, and we scaled up as quickly as we could," Mohs said. "I've never seen business development so quickly so we just kept making tools and expanding."

Demand skyrocketed as Ford, which is assembling face shields at some factories, continued to order more materials from the packager. Placon was running the lines for trimming the shields at three facilities.

That's when the idea for the Placon Face Shield Alliance was born.

"We still couldn't meet demand, so we called up some local companies and formed an alliance," he said.

Portage Plastics Corp., another packaging thermoformer from Portage, Wis., and Paradise Plastics, also a thermoformer from Plant City, Fla., joined forces with Placon to help meet Ford's demand for the PPE components.

Placon is No. 20 on the recent Plastics News ranking of North American thermoformers.

The partners' combined production is currently at 4.5 million units a week, but the output peaked at about 7 million early on, though Mohs anticipates production to rescind further as the pandemic continues.

The team focused on developing a good production to keep the shields from scratching and how to scale up and replicate models.

"That points to the simplicity of our approach. Our tooling was ideal for that," Mohs said. "As I look back, that was the simple elegance."

Supply was tight at the start of the project and getting PET sheet was a tight demand, but Mohs said his supply team was very active in making sure they could source enough rollstock.

"Our vendors were very supportive. They believed in what we're doing and were very flexible in doing what they could to meet demand not just for the business side — it's easier when it's something we all care about," he said.

The office workers continue to work from home as the top brass continues to work out how back-to-the-office procedures will start. The team planned all of the changes to the line through phone calls and online meetings, Mohs said.

Workers on the floor have been working in "pods" to help minimize widespread exposure, including trips to the bathrooms and staying in separate workspaces Mohs called a "compartmentalization" plan. Temperatures are taken each day, along with a questionnaire about health. Areas are disinfected several times daily.

Three of Placon's four facilities are thermoformers, which were transformed to make the face shields. The fourth facility is an injection molder, which is continuing output of retail, food and medical packaging.

Mohs has seen an ebb and flow in demand for some of the various end markets. There's been a strong influx of demand for personal protective equipment, but since elective surgeries have dropped off, so has production on medical components.

"We've put face shields in the lines that weren't running there, so it has balanced out a bit," he said.

Mohs said the industry as a whole has responded well and swiftly to try to help medical workers and beyond in terms of making protective equipment to help keep the virus at bay.

"There's a massive effort through our industry, and it has responded so well — I think it points out the point of plastic in our everyday lives," he said. "If some good can come out of this horrible pandemic, it can restore our industry's value.

""We just feel so proud and thankful for our employees and for our company for how they pulled together to supply much-needed PPE. We're just thankful people were able to come together and to get through this."