Foodmach installs Covid mask machine in record time

Food machinery manufacturer, Foodmach has been tasked with building another four mask production machines for Victorian producer, Med-Con, bringing the total to seven.

The seven machines will increase Med-Con’s annual production of the protective masks from two million to 160 million a year, with delivery of the first 60 million to the Federal Government by November.

The machines are core to Australia’s Covid-19 response, and were conceived and produced from a 40-year-old machine design within eight weeks.

Foodmach CEO, Earle Roberts said: “With nearly 1,000 unique parts in each machine in terms of individual designs, it’s been quite an undertaking.

“We’ve had to design, manufacturer or procure all of them. The project has tested our internal capacity and our supply chains.”

The installations are the fastest site commissioning of a new machine yet achieved by Foodmach.

Mask Machine 1 was installed on one day and began producing 44 masks a minute late last week – the following day.

See the video of the machine in operation here.

Ray Stockwell, CEO of Operations at Med-Con had anticipated a two-week commissioning process on-site.

Stockwell said: “We should have stopped manufacturing masks 10 years ago because we were barely covering costs.

“But we believe in the quality of what we do here in Australia, and we refused to give in to imported products.”

Foodmach is a privately owned and operated Australian company, providing solutions for the food, beverage and industrial manufacturing industries since 1972.

The company employs 100 staff and operates a 5,400m2 manufacturing facility in Echuca, Victoria.

Picture: Foodmach

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