DoD awards $2.75M for fiber component of COVID-19 respirators

On July 24, the Department of Defense (DoD), in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), signed a $2.75 million contract award with Green Bay, Wisconsin-based NPS Corp to increase domestic production of meltblown fiber.

Meltblown filtration media is a critical commodity component to produce N95 respirators and surgical masks. This investment by the U.S. government will enable NPS, a manufacturer of industrial, safety, and janitorial supplies and solutions, to domestically produce the meltblown filtration media that will support production of up to an estimated 60 million N95 respirators per month or 170 million surgical masks per month by November 2021. To meet this increased production capacity, NPS will install a new meltblown fiber line in its Green Bay facility, ensuring a sustainable domestic supply chain of meltblown filtration media.

This contract award is part of the ongoing collaboration between DoD and HHS, led by the Department’s Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF) and funded through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, to enable and support domestic industrial base expansion for critical medical resources.

Read more: https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2288304/dod-aw...