D’Addario Turning Drumheads Into Face Shields

Longtime musical instrument strings and accessories company D’Addario have announced that they’re turning their resources to a different item altogether: face shields.

From the D’Addario website:

“Today, D’Addario is underway in engineering and manufacturing face shields to help alleviate the dire shortage of protective gear for New York and the world’s healthcare workers.

“Even before our factories were closed, D’Addario immediately began devising a way to use its resources to support the global response to COVID-19. Our team of engineers quickly learned how to fabricate protective face shields using the clear film from Evans G2 drumheads. In only three days, we developed the first prototype. Using our FDA approved Dynatomy brand, we will be mass-producing the Dynatomy face shield in the Evans drumhead facility, which the NYSEDC approved to stay open.”

Adds D’Addario CEO John D’Addario III:

“We called this Project Excelsior after the New York State motto, which means ‘Ever Upward’ because it captured the extraordinary determination and can-do spirit of our small team of engineers and product designers. It also typifies our music company’s current credo during the COVID-19 crisis: #wewillplayon.

“It’s our intention to manufacture these shields as long as they’re needed in New York or anywhere around the globe. We’ve watched the incredible efforts of our healthcare and essential services workers all across the world with great admiration. While we cannot match the immeasurable efforts of these selfless heroes, we feel an immense responsibility to do our part in overcoming the COVID-19 crisis.”

The company aims to begin producing the face shields by April 27, and to produce up to 100,000 face shields per week.

You can learn more about the project, and/or fill out a request form for face shields, here.

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