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Some Montreal businesses are reinventing themselves at breakneck speed in a bid to produce sorely needed protective equipment for medical workers and help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

AON3D, a maker of three-dimensional industrial printers with about 40 employees, has temporarily shelved its regular line of business to tackle the production of face shields. It joins a booming field that includes Tristan, the family-owned clothing retailer and manufacturer that just converted one of its Eastern Townships plants to make plastic visors.

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“This has been a whirlwind two weeks,” Nicholas Nadeau, head of engineering at AON3D, said Friday in a telephone interview. “First we had to learn to become a virtual company, and now we’ve pivoted the company into a medical equipment manufacturer.”

Larger companies have also jumped into the fray, with flight simulator maker CAE Inc. saying it’s aiming to mass produce a newly created ventilator within three months.