NOVEMBER 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 23
D’ADDARIO & CO. INC.
FROM STRINGS TO PPE
Months after Farmingdale-based musical
instrument maker D’Addario & Co., Inc.
converted its drum-making facility to
make face shields amid rising demand
for PPE at the peak of the coronavirus
pandemic, the company is getting a boost.
New York State and the Empire State
Development Corporation recently
awarded D’Addario, the world’s largest
musical instrument accessories manufacturer,
a $341,000 grant to expand its
COVID-19 face shield manufacturing
operations.
“At a time when we were scouring the
earth in search of personal protective
equipment, New York State’s manufacturers
like D’Addario answered the call
to support our COVID-19 front-line heroes,”
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said during
a recent tour of the 200,000-squarefoot
facility that employs nearly 1,000
people.
The move mirrors actions manufacturers
locally and nationwide made to help
combat COVID-19 — widely considered
the most significant business response
of its kind since World War II — with
the likes of Hanes making masks and
ExxonMobil turning out hand sanitizer,
to name a few.
With the grant, D’Addario will build four
semi-automated work cells to improve efficiency,
lower manufacturing cost, and
double production capacity — leading to
more face shields and additional factory
jobs.
Switching from guitar strings and
drumheads to PPE almost overnight
was no simple feat. After D’Addario
closed its factory doors in April, a team
of engineers, led by Chief Innovation
Officer Jim D’Addario, developed the
face shields from the clear film used
to make the Evans G2 drumhead. Since
D’Addario had previously produced
certain physical therapy products
through its FDA-registered brand Dynatomy,
the team was able to develop a
prototype in just three days.
To date, D’Addario has sold almost
1.5 million face shields, mostly to
hospitals and healthcare equipment
distributors. But the face shields have
also found their way to local businesses,
schools, and even the Detroit Lions
NFL team.
“An unprecedented crisis like the global
pandemic in many ways can define
individuals and organizations,” said
D’Addario CEO John D’Addario III. “I
could not be prouder of the ingenuity
and genuine care of our family of employees
at D’Addario in helping those
in need of PPE materials.”
-TB
Elected officials toured D’Addario’s plant.
WHOLLY MOLI
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
