On June 19, the Department of Defense, in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services, signed a $13.5 million contract award with Lydall, Inc. to increase domestic capacity of meltblown filtration media.
Meltblown filtration media is a critical commodity component to produce N95 respirators and surgical masks. This investment by the U.S. government will enable Lydall to domestically produce the meltblown filtration media that will support production of up to an estimated 100 million N95 respirators per month or 383 million surgical masks per month by May 2021. To meet this increased production capacity, Lydall will add two fine fiber meltblown lines to its Rochester, New Hampshire, facility, ensuring a sustainable domestic supply chain of meltblown filtration media.
This contract award is part of the ongoing collaboration between DOD and HHS, led by the department’s Joint Acquisition Task Force and funded through the CARES Act, to enable and support domestic industrial base expansion for critical medical resources.