The large company and its employees are doing their part to make a big difference.
In the ongoing battle against the pandemic, little things sometimes make a big difference. Steve Wynveen, a development engineering manager at Mercury Racing, a division of Brunswick, read that home sewers were having a tough time with one key part of the face mask pattern. So he stepped in and put his 3D printer to use.
“One of the more time-consuming parts to sew in this plan is folding bias tape in half and stitching it together to form the strings that loop over your ear or behind your head,” said Wynveen. “The tool we are 3D printing is a funnel that folds the tape back onto itself, so that when it exits the tool, it can be fed right into a sewing machine or ironed flat.”
This tool makes it easier and faster to sew masks, which equates to more masks at the end of the day. Fellow Mercury employees Chris Jenks and David Dins, who are also 3D printer hobbyists, jumped in to help print out the plastic tools. Jenks said the “printer brigade” has created about 600 of the bias-tape tools and has delivered about 500 of them to sewers.
This is but one small example of how Brunswick and its employees are making a difference. The company has made several donations, including $50,000 to the Red Cross and $10,000 to the Salvation Army. The company is also matching all donations made by its employees.
Brunswick and its various subsidiaries are also manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE) to donate to hospitals and first responders. Brunswick’s Boat Group shipped 15,000 masks to first responders and hospitals. The company is also utilizing its upholstery manufacturing capability to make additional masks at its Integrated Manufacturing Center in Florida as well as at its Sea Ray Tellico plant and Thunder Jet facility. Also, Mercury Marine donated over 11,000 masks to hospitals and responders near its headquarters in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. Employees at Power Products are also utilizing 3D printing capabilities to print first-responder masks.
Marinco, a division of Brunswick’s Power Products, is producing electrical equipment used in mobile hospitals and temporary emergency treatment centers. Whale, Brunswick’s parts and accessories company in Northern Ireland, has accelerated production of pumps used in hand sanitizer stations and will ship 120,000 of these critical systems around the world over the next few months.
“Our talented, passionate organization, working closely with our suppliers, are making a difference helping those in need fight the pandemic,” said Dave Foulkes, Brunswick Corporation Chief Executive Officer. “We have reached out to and are working with companies around the world to work together to manufacturer parts for ventilators, use 3D printing for masks and many other opportunities to help. I’m proud of our teams who have done their part to help those in need fight the Coronavirus.”
