Northwest Aerospace News June | July Issue No. 15

They met with Providence Health & Services to determine specifications. Within days they had a prototype and materials ready to produce the shields. The drawing and plans for the face shields are available to anyone who needs them. The assembly of the shields at the CAI location is being conducted by employees. The company decided that instead of furloughing employees, why not charge a nominal fee for the shields and keep employees productive? The shields are made available first in the surrounding counties: Whatcom, Snohomish, Skagit, Island and King. They also determined that the shields should be available for purchase by any regional healthcare facility, from hospitals to nursing facilities to urgent care, and testing locations. The face shields are priced at 20 dollars each for orders of 100+, and 35 dollars each for orders fewer than 100. They include a replacement kit with new foam headbands and straps for four dollars. All technical and tooling costs are free. The face shields are re-usable. Welch said that the company is happy to help during this critical time. He postulated that the airline industry will likely be changed for good with new awareness of hygiene on flights, “It will make the airlines take the cleaning and sanitation of aircraft more seriously going forward.” He added that he sees more oversight regarding sick people getting on flights in the future. Veliz feels that the United States should take heed that more products should be manufactured within our borders. He said, “Looking at the United States, we had a good shot in the arm of scarce resources. How can we plug into our own market so we can have these things available to us? For capabilities in our country, we lack that now. Companies in this country should be saying, “We need to have some of this basic manufacturing here in the United States.” Commercial Aircraft Interiors 19405 68th DR NE, Suite A Arlington, WA 98223 360-757-3117 sales@cai.aero https://www.cai.aero JUNE | JULY 2020 ISSUE NO. 15 47

Northwest Aerospace News June | July Issue No. 15 | Page 47