Scott Specialities retooling capabilities to produce masks

Scott Specialties, headquartered in Belleville, is one of the companies trying to retool some of their manufacturing capabilities to meet the critical shortages in the healthcare field during the COVID-19 crisis.
"We're working on making masks," said James McDonald, president of Scott Specialties.
The company was founded over 50 years ago by Wilson Scott, who used the invention of a hook-and-loop enclosure for the construction of orthopedic braces.
Today the privately-held company has three locations: Belleville, Concordia, and Clay Center. With 150 employees, it manufactures over 2000 different types of products designed by medical professionals.
"We've made a few hundred masks so far with the material we have in-house," McDonald said. "We have a stock of polycotton material, but we need the elastic bands that would go over the ears, and the metal crimps to shape the mask over the nose. Our suppliers are on the East Coast, so you can imagine things are slow."
The shortage of supplies, and the learning curve in manufacturing a new product, is hampering production for the time being. "Obviously production is not where we want it to be. But we just started making the masks on Friday (March 27)."
The masks were designed at the company headquarters in Belleville, and will be manufactured at their facilities in Concordia and Clay Center. "We reached out to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) for their guidelines," McDonald said. "All three of our facilities are FDA-approved."
McDonald said that once they get things rolling, the company intends to supply local healthcare agencies. "This is a new thing for us, but hopefully soon - if we can get the supplies in - we can start helping local facilities get at least some of the masks they need."