Taylor King producing outer masks for healthcare workers
MATERIAL FOR MASKS — Above, a worker at Taylor King Furniture collects and stacks pieces of fabric which will be made into outer face masks for medical personnel.
Del Starnes, President of Taylor King Furniture in Taylorsville, has announced his company is producing face coverings for medical workers. Medical-grade masks are in short supply in many areas, he noted.
“We’ve heard that medical personnel are wearing their masks all day long, or even longer,” Starnes related. “The coverings we’re producing will help prolong the life of the medical grade masks.”
“We were told that at some places, they were having to share masks for three shifts. Others were having to make do with masks with broken straps, bobby pinning them to get them to stay on,” said Tanya Comer, Vice President of Marketing.
Taylor King has six employees working on the project under prescribed social distancing guidelines.
“There was no trouble getting anyone to come in, to do this. They were all very appreciative in being involved in something like this, that’s beneficial to the health of everyone,” Starnes related.
Their Gerber cutting machine precisely snips out the tightly woven, 100 percent cotton fabric. Workers then sew four pieces of the material into each double-sided mask.
“We’ve really gotten into a good system of assembly for these masks,” Starnes said.
So far, the furniture company has provided masks at no charge to medical staff at Fresenius Kidney Care and Valley Nursing Center in Taylorsville, UNC Hospital, the Iredell Memorial Respiratory Care team, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Catawba Memorial, as well as oncologists in Wilmington and Fayetteville, among others.
A worker at Taylor King sews together layers of fabric for cotton masks.
