April 14, 2020 | Brian Jones

MGP Caliper Covers Retools Manufacturing Facility to Produce Face Shields For San Diego County Health Workers

San Diego, CA – In an effort to help provide assistance to San Diego’s courageous health care workers, MGP Caliper Covers has retooled its local manufacturing facility to produce much needed PPE face shields for doctors and nurses on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The automotive aftermarket company that specializes in manufacturing customizable brake covers received final approval on Friday, April 10 to begin manufacturing and made their first delivery of 50 PPE face shields on Monday, April 13, to VA San Diego Health System.

“We have dedicated a portion of our manufacturing facility to high-speed-machine the headgear, then develop a quick and easy assembly process using off the shelf materials,” said Mike Barland, Founder & CEO of MGP Caliper Covers.

The process became a reality after Mike’s son, who is part of a nationwide 3D printing group, reached out asking for help to support the 3D printing of the headbands for a PPE facemask. Mike and his team successfully ran a few units through MGP’s 3D printer where the process took almost 45min per unit.

Mike instructed MGPs team to test high-speed-machining while he worked on procuring other components to provide a quality off the shelf item. 

“Our goal is to deliver a ready-to-use PPE face shield for the frontline health workers,” said Barland. “It was a nice challenge my son provided for us in a time of uncertainty. It gave all of MGP something positive to focus on and use our resources to help the healthcare industry.”