A Cape Cod company has modified equipment normally used to make deli takeout containers and other plastic packaging so it can produce N95 respirator masks for medical workers.

A Hyannis packaging company has modified the equipment normally used to make deli takeout containers and other plastic packaging so the machine can produce — at a rate of 300 per minute — the N95 respirator masks desperately needed by medical workers battling the coronavirus.

SencorpWhite will deliver a half-million-dollar machine Monday to one of the companies President Donald Trump has called on to ramp up production of the breathing masks in the face of a national shortage.

“We’re helping with the mass production of the mask. Nobody would think Cape Cod is contributing to this, but we are,” said Corey Calla, of Marstons Mills, president of White Systems, which is in the process of merging with Sencorp.

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The company is one of the machine suppliers in the national push to make 450 million masks needed immediately to protect medical workers, as well as tackling the president’s call for an additional 600 to 700 million to stockpile.

Because SencorpWhite built two extra undetailed stock machines last fall, the N95 production equipment, which normally would have taken three to four months to produce, was ready in just over a week. The second machine is also nearly ready and a third, if needed, can be delivered in eight to 10 weeks, said Brian Golden of Harwich Port, SencorpWhite’s vice president of sales.

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SencorpWhite president and CEO Brian Urban posted the news on LinkedIn on Friday night. Within 24 hours, more than 20,000 people had seen it and scores were asking for specifications to see if they could help. Some people also asked to buy masks, but officials said these are designed for medical workers. Urban was referring people who wanted to help to Honeywell, 3M and others who are using the new machinery to produce the N95 masks.

Honeywell spokesman Eric Krantz said Saturday night in a telephone interview that his company was increasing its production of medical-grade masks, but that he could not yet comment on specific contracts.

“We are looking forward to working with American businesses that can provide innovative solutions,” he later wrote in an emailed response.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the N95 masks are recommended for medical personnel because they protect from particulates and liquids produced by sick people.

Calla explained that the mask-making machine has three stages to process 100-yard rolls of heavy-duty plastic. The first phase heats the material until it is pliable; the second shapes and forms the mask; and the third stage cuts and trims it.

The Rhode Island plant actually producing the masks would add two finishing pieces before shipping.

Golden said Sencorp’s share of that technology was a first for the company but testing showed it not only worked but was a relatively easy task for the machine.

"Everybody in the Sencorp facility is very proud of this, to be able to do something that is a step in stopping the spread of the virus," Golden said.

The international SencorpWhite, based on Kidds Hill Road behind the Barnstable Municipal Airport, makes pharmaceutical carousels for 85% of U.S. hospitals, Calla said. Carousels keep a digital inventory of drugs as they are dispensed into the locked cabinets found in each hospital unit.

Maintaining those units and other critical medical equipment means SencorpWhite’s 230 Cape employees are still working as essential service personnel.

To get the mask machines done as quickly as possible, Calla offered overtime and asked for volunteers from the core assembly team. They all showed up: Gabriel Agaman, Bill Beaumont, Keith Blackwell, Robert Conklin, Jarrek Davis, Dan Lyons, Juan Martinez-Torres and Miguel Cardona.

When Calla arrived at 5:45 a.m. Saturday, he found five members of the team, coordinated by 35-year employee Conklin, of West Yarmouth, had already finished building the first machine and prepped it for transport. As they tackled the second machine, another team had showed up early and were already working on the third.

“I’m an early starter anyway. I’m usually in there about 5 or 5:30,” Conklin said. “They sounded the alarm and we said yes.”

Find Gwenn Friss on Twitter, @dailyrecipeCCT, and Instagram, @CCTfeaturescreatures.