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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Bright View Technologies Retools to Produce Face Masks in Durham, North Carolina

04/02/2020
Bright View Technologies, a subsidiary of Tredegar Corporation and manufacturer of highly-advanced, optical management products, retooled its factory in Durham, North Carolina. The company is now producing disposable face shields to protect healthcare professionals during the coronavirus crisis.

According to Bright View officials, the company received its first order from the State of North Carolina and is responding to numerous other customer inquiries. With a “stay at home” order now in place in North Carolina and limited staffing, Bright View is tailoring the production of this Personal Protective Equipment to enable independent contractors to assemble the face shields at their homes.

Jennifer Aspell, President of Bright View, said, “Given our company’s expertise in optical grade plastic films, we quickly identified ways that we could contribute to fighting the pandemic and worked with our sister company, Tredegar Personal Care, to create the prototype in just five days.”

“Bright View is adapting to this challenging environment with flexibility, ingenuity and resiliency in support of our business, and more importantly, our families, friends and community.” Ms. Aspell added, “This is uncharted territory, but I am proud of leading an organization that can make a vital contribution to our community during this crisis.”

Bright View said it is using crowdsourcing to attract personnel to assemble the shields, with preference given to people who have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, particularly those who now find themselves unemployed. The company expects to add 25-30 independent contractors within the next two weeks in order to meet demand for its face shields.

Mike Bobay, Director of Operations for Bright View, stated, “We held a brainstorming session to develop an assembly method that could maximize productivity while allowing individuals to work at home. We’ve developed a process enabling independent contractors to pick up a kit of materials for the face shields, assemble the product at home, and return fully assembled face shields to Bright View’s Durham facility where the shields will undergo quality inspections.” This movement of materials will minimize interaction of individuals by using curbside pick-up/drop-off zones with no personal contact.

Tredegar’s Bright View Technologies subsidiary designs and manufactures a range of advanced film-based components that provide specialized functionality for the global engineered optics market. Located in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, Bright View combines polymer expertise and its patented microstructure technology to produce high performance solutions for a variety of applications such as consumer electronics, automotive, lighting, horticulture, and other optical management markets.

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