Industry News
Merrow Manufacturing & Precision Fabrics Group Create New U.S.-Made, Reusable PPE
An unprecedented backlog of all imports, which includes medical products, is creating a crippling supply chain crisis throughout the United States. Recently, the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach announced that a record 70 container vessels were waiting offshore to unload their goods. In response, Merrow Manufacturing and Precision Fabrics Group (PFG) have mobilized their resources to alleviate widespread shortages, sub-standard design, highly variable quality, and increased prices of PPE with the creation of domestically produced reusable Level 1 and 2 isolation gowns.
This proprietary gown design was created in collaboration with a group of infection prevention nurses and medical product engineers. The Merrow and PFG teams responded to the nurses’ acute concerns around PPE: “Will we get it? Will it perform?”
“Our mission has been to intensively listen and incorporate the nurses’ experience, insights, needs and wants into a protective gown that will provide comfort and freedom of movement, without sacrificing full-on protection during this incredibly strenuous COVID era,” says James Barry, Business Manager of Healthcare Products at PFG.
In addition to being reusable up to 125 times, these medical protective gowns are made of high-performance, antimicrobial, medical-grade fabric, engineered for optimal protection of the body and neck areas, while also being priced competitively with lower quality, disposable PPE alternatives on a cost-per-use basis.
According to Merrow Manufacturing CEO Charlie Merrow, this advancement in isolation gown design and fabrication will not only sustain a supply of much-needed U.S.-sourced PPE for healthcare workers, but also lower costs, enhance efficiencies, and maintain quality.“The scarcity of PPE in the U.S. during 2020 preceded a hospital staffing crisis that is currently forcing some facilities to ration care. The latest increase in COVID cases only exacerbates the potential for substantial supply-chain disruption that has ensnared movement of goods worldwide,” says Merrow. “By combining this new innovative product with our sustainable production model, we can prevent a catastrophe.”
Merrow and PFG's post-pandemic industrial-based expansion of 100% USA sourced medical protective equipment, with a mission to operate at scale and as a sustainable, agile, industrial platform, strengthens the nation’s public health and medical infrastructure and ensures a continuous, accessible, secure source of PPE supply. The facilities in which they are manufactured are registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Proven in independent testing, the Merrow/PFG L2 Medical Gown meets and exceeds ASTM Level 1 & 2 standards.
With flu season rapidly approaching, private and public healthcare institutions are searching for immediate, reliable solutions to supply chain disruptions. This nurse-engineered product’s unique combination of secure domestic supply, innovative technology, and improved sustainability has the potential to resolve these issues and provide safety for providers, patients, and public health agencies. Federal and State organizations aligned with this mission are encouraged to contact Merrow and PFG.
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Merrow Manufacturing & Precision Fabrics Group Create New U.S.-Made, Reusable PPE
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With its Texpertise Network, Messe Frankfurt leads the world market in events for apparel fabrics, fashion, home textiles, technical textiles, and textile processing. Now, there have been a number of personnel changes in the business unit, a division of Messe Frankfurt that includes the Frankfurt Fashion Week and is headed by Olaf Schmidt, vice president, Textiles & Textile Technologies.
The Frankfurt Fashion Week has been enriching Messe Frankfurt’s portfolio of textile events since its announcement in May 2020. Due to the pandemic, the first edition in July 2021 was held digitally as the FFW Studio. The event was organized by Frankfurt Fashion Week Director Dr. Hendrik Müller-Giegler, who took over this position in June 2021 from Ricarda Quehl, who is currently on maternity leave. With managerial and international marketing experience in the media and entertainment industry, Hendrik Müller-Giegler, joined Messe Frankfurt as Marketing Communications Director in the Entertainment, Media & Creative Industries Business Unit in 2018.
A major role in the development of the Frankfurt Fashion Week has also been played by Claudia Franz, who has extensive experience in the international fashion and textile sector and has been with Messe Frankfurt as Director of Brand Management, Interior & Contract Textiles and Apparel Fabrics & Fashion, since 2019. She is currently involved in the launch of the new quality mainstream fashion fair, Val:ue, and a supplementary downstream event, Apparel Sourcing in Fashion, both of which will be held in association with the Frankfurt Fashion Week.
Two other changes have been made following the resignation of Thimo Schwenzfeier who leaves the company at his own request on October 31, 2021, to take up new professional challenges.
He is followed in the position of Neonyt Show Director by Bettina Bär who has worked for Messe Frankfurt in a variety of positions in the consumer-goods fairs division since 2012, most recently as Tendence Show Director. In this connection, she was, inter alia, jointly responsible for the Ethical Style Guide, in which ecologically oriented exhibitors of the Tendence trade fair were specially labeled and promoted after having been selected by an expert jury. Additionally, Bettina Bär has been appointed co-director of the new fashion fair, Val:ue, which makes its debut during the Frankfurt Fashion Week in January 2022 and is set to be the cornerstone of the quality and mainstream fashion segment.
The Marketing Communication Department has been headed by Ivonne Seifert since October 1, 2021. Accordingly, she is now in charge of marketing communication for the leading international trade fairs, Heimtextil, Techtextil, and Texprocess, and the Neonyt and Val:ue fashion fairs, as well as the communication activities for the international Texpertise Network. Ivonne Seifert joined Messe Frankfurt 10 years ago and has held a variety of positions in marketing. She has extensive marketing expertise in both the B2B and B2C fields.
All report to Olaf Schmidt who is responsible for the Texpertise Network at Messe Frankfurt. With a portfolio of around 60 international textile fairs, Messe Frankfurt offers many trade fairs in the textile sector. In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, more than 23,000 exhibitors and over 600,000 visitors took part in events organized by Messe Frankfurt around the globe. The spectrum of fairs covers the whole value chain of the textile industry.
Source: Messe Frankfurt
