Throughout April, Saint-Gobain (Courbevoie, France) has mobilized its production facilities to manufacture medical materials and components and products that can be used to build makeshift hospitals.
Saint-Gobain’s Life Sciences unit, for instance, is prioritizing the production and delivery of COVID-19 components, including single-use assemblies for the development of new therapies and components for life-saving medical devices, such as ventilators and infusion pumps. Twelve production units are currently mobilized in Europe, the United States and China, to manufacture, in particular, flexible tubes, connectors and fasteners, filters, membranes which directly contribute to the proper functioning of medical systems used to diagnose, treat, and care for patients impacted by COVID-19.
By adapting some of its sites, Saint-Gobain in France has been able to multiply by a factor of 15 the production capacity for silicone membranes that are embedded into the respirators that are in high demand for healthcare services. The manufacture of non-critical products has been transferred to other sites, which have also adapted their production facilities.
Besides the manufacture of vital medical components and products, Saint-Gobain has also been supplying partition walls and plasterboard for the construction or transformation of stadiums and gymnasiums into field hospitals and the adaptation of nursing homes. This is particularly the case in France, the United States, Russia and the U.K., where Saint-Gobain helped to convert an exhibition hall into a huge makeshift hospital with 4,000 beds for patients affected by the Covid-19 virus.
In this same field, Saint-Gobain, together with other players in the building industry, answered a call for innovative solutions made by the French Armed Forces Ministry, proposing the construction of prefab offsite hospitals deployable in six weeks. These hospital units consisting of re-usable prefabricated wooden modules will feature about fifteen intensive-care rooms, a central corridor and a window view onto the rooms, as well as preparation and storage rooms. In this context, Saint-Gobain is rallying to respond to this initiative by supplying materials such as plasterboard, glass wool and timber panels.