Aside from ventilators Ford is also making hospital gowns out of airbags

Ford over in the United States has been making a lot of moves lately to help fight the spread of the Coronavirus. The company has already teamed up with General Electrics to make ventilators for hospitals. Now the Blue Oval is yet again shifting its production resources into medical equipment. The company has announced that it is now also making respirators, face masks, and hospital gowns, with the latter being made from repurposed airbag materials.

Ford is now teaming up with Beaumont Health in Detroit on the design of the gowns. Through this process the companies will also be getting assistance from a supplier Joyson Safety  Systems for the 1.3 million airbag-related reusable gowns that will be made.

Ford’s transmission plant in Van Dyke, Michigan has been modified to produce face masks. 30 paid volunteers will be producing facemasks at the facility’s ISO Class 8 cleanroom. There they will be making medical-grade masks. An additional 80 paid volunteers will be joining in on the effort as the production of the masks ramps up. The Blue Oval has already made preparations to make air-purifying respirators with the assistance of 3M. Once the preparations are made the automotive brand is set to make around 100,000 respirators.

Ford is not alone in producing medical equipment. Other companies such as Fiat Chrysler and GM are also doing their part to help in the fight against the Coronavirus. Fiat Chrysler is already in the midst of producing up to one million face masks per month that will be donated to hospitals. While General Motors is doing its part by ramping up its production of ventilators with its partnership with Ventec.