Mondi to produce 10,000 medical gowns for healthcare workers

Three German Mondi plants located in Halle, Steinfeld and Gronau are set to produce and donate 10,000 protective gowns to workers in local nursing homes and retirement facilities by using extruded PE tubes to be assembled into single-use protective garments.

Mondi employees Alfons Kruse (second from right) and Detlef Stöppelmann (right) hand over the first 500 garments

Creating the gowns requires the collaboration of three Mondi plants alongside a local partner company Borgerding, which assists with the assembly of the gowns. 

The process involves Mondi Halle extruding a 750 mm-diameter polyethylene film tube that forms the body of the slip-over gown. Mondi Gronau uses its R&D Centre to extrude smaller, 250 mm-diameter PE tubes that form the gown sleeves, and Mondi Steinfeld  converts the bodies and the sleeves. Borgerding is manually attaching and sealing the sleeves to the bodies of the larger tube.

‘We’re very pleased that Mondi could respond to this request and quickly devise a solution to help protect front-line staff and healthcare workers in the region. As a packaging producer, it involved creatively rethinking materials and production processes in order to make protective garments. Mondi's employees rose to this challenge to support our local communities and we are proud of their work,’ commented Alfons Kruse, Mondi’s plant manager in Steinfeld.

The first 500 of ready-made disposable, single-use garments have been delivered to the regional district’s Civil Protection Authority in Diepholz, which will oversee the distribution to the local facilities.