NEWS
Within days, Prent Reinvented Itself by Creating Face Shields and Donating them to the United States and Costa Rica
• In 48 hours, the company created face shields against the new coronavirus and donated more than 10,000 in the United States.
• 1,200 protectors were delivered to Costa Rica.
Costa Rica. May 6th, 2020. When
Prent Corporation in Janesville learned that a local medical center, Mercyhealth Hospital, and Trauma Center, had a shortage of protective equipment due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, the company sprang into action. Within 48 hours, healthcare workers had new face shields. Prent has donated more than 10,000 face shields to Mercyhealth and other local healthcare facilities. The company plans to ramp up production to provide healthcare workers in need throughout the country.
Costa Rica was also benefited, days ago, Prent Costa Rica received 1,200 units, of which one thousand were delivered to the National Emergency Commission (
CNE) and 200 to people with high exposure to COVID-19, such as garbage collectors and staff from the municipalities of the cantons where the company's employees reside.
Prent is a plastic thermoforming company that designs and produces custom packaging for the medical and electronics industries. In Costa Rica, it is located in Parque Industrial Z, in Heredia.
Juan Carlos Touma, plant manager of
Prent Costa Rica, commented: “Our headquarters sent us 1,000 units to donate to Costa Rica. From there, they sent us the pieces to assemble them ourselves. This would not have been possible without the mystique of our collaborators, who donated part of their time in the elaboration and packaging of these masks.”
The company donated the protective equipment to the CNE. These devices will be of great help to healthcare workers, as they cover their entire faces to help keep the masks clean so they can be used safely for longer.
“We heard there was a dire need in our community and we knew we could help, so we dedicated a team to work on it immediately,” said Joseph Pregont II, vice president of corporate sales at Prent. “The added capacity means we have an entire production line dedicated to making face shields without impacting other orders. We’ll continue face shield production until hospital supply chains can meet the demand.”
Right now, many healthcare workers are forced to reuse surgical masks because they’re in short supply. The face shield covers the whole face to help keep masks clean so they can be safely used longer.
Prent designers tried creating a traditional face shield with 3 parts (shield, foam cushion, and elastic headband) but found it would take too long to get all the parts from suppliers, so the company designed an innovative solution made of only plastic and foam that could be produced and delivered quickly.
The scratch-resistant, recycled PETG plastic material from sister company, GOEX, was extruded in an unprecedented 24 hours. The machine die was developed in just 5 hours. Then full production began.
Prent estimates it has the capacity to make millions of face shields per week.
For more information about the newly designed face shield, contact faceshield@prent.com.
About Prent Corporation
Headquartered in Janesville, WI, Prent Corporation is the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of custom plastic, rigid thermoform packaging for the medical, electronics and consumer industries. The company has received an unprecedented 16 WorldStar medical packaging awards. Additional manufacturing facilities are located in Arizona, China, Costa Rica, Mexico, Denmark, Malaysia, and Puerto Rico. Learn more at Prent.com.
