Saukville company Rebel Converting donating kits to help make millions of masks
SAUKVILLE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A Saukville company is changing gears from making wipes to making face masks to help fill the national shortage due to the pandemic.
Rebel Converting has a goal of making a million masks, and they’re building kits so they get the help they need to make them.
“We kind of based our design off of what would normally be a wet wipe,” said Thaddeus Kryshak, Systems Engineer for Rebel Converting.
Rebel Converting in Saukville is switching gears.
They usually make between 30-50 million hospital grade wipes a day.
Now that fabric will be used to make one million face masks locally to meet the country’s goal of 100 million, and the masks make an excellent substitute.
“It’s a plastic polymer, so it doesn’t harbor bacteria, and it’s also hydrophobic so water won’t permeate it,” said Kryshak.
The kits consist of four rolls of 700 sheets of fabric, rubber bands, and instructions for how to make them.
They also made the masks more effective by electrostatically charging them at a high voltage, capturing electrons in the fabric.
“The coronavirus is very, very small, and the negative charge just attracts the coronavirus and captures it in the fabric,” said Kryshak.
“When people cough or talk, particles and droplets come out of the mouth, and they’re stopped in the mask itself, so they don’t spread into the air,” said Dr. Christopher Davis from the Medical College of Wisconsin.
The Medical College of Wisconsin is also helping out with their efforts.
“We’re all trying together and this was a very generous donation, and hopefully it’ll prevent a lot of spread of disease and save a lot of lives,” said Andrea Rossman, a first year medical student with the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Rebel Converting says they’re happy they can help.
“Hopefully we can help them protect themselves and protect others.”
If you’d like to help, or be one of the organizations that receive masks, you can find more information on how to do that here.