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Greer Company Starts During Pandemic, Makes Face Masks With 99% Filtration Rate
GREER, S.C. (WSPA) – An Upstate company is making lab-certified face masks for first responders, companies and people at home.
Carolina Face Mask & PPE in Greer went out on a limb during the pandemic to initially provide masks for first responders and big companies. The company has grown over the last several months and is now selling masks to anyone who needs them.
“What breaks us apart is that we have the extremely high, 99% or better, bacteria and particle filtration rates,” Rick Gehricke, with Carolina Face Mask and PPE, said.
Gehricke says the company was born out of Advanced Testing Instruments, which has been testing textiles for decades. He says they had the opportunity to bring in some mass production and testing machines and decided to start using them to make face masks.
With the help of three or four people, Gehricke says they can make at least 25,000 masks a day and around 80 masks a minute.
“When I would go to the chiropractor, or when I would go to the dentist, or talk to friends and family, they did not have access to masks,” Ryan Gehricke, with Carolina Face Mask & PPE said.
After initial success selling to first responders and companies running during the pandemic, the veteran-owned company started selling masks to anybody who came out to their site at 203 Parksouth Drive in Greer.
“The biggest thing you won’t see with the cloth or the homemade mask is how they’re tested or where they’re tested,” Rick Gehricke said.
Gehricke says the masks are three layers and lab-certified. The team says this is different from many of the masks you see on shelves or made at home.