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SNC-Lavalin to engineer Medicom’s N95-mask manufacturing facility

SNC-Lavalin will supply engineering services to AMD Medicom Inc. (Medicom) in the establishment of a Canadian manufacturing facility that will produce N95 and surgical masks for local health-care providers.

The governments of Canada and Quebec recently enlisted Medicom to produce tens of million masks, starting in July.

Headquartered in Montreal, Medicom has medical-grade personal protection equipment production facilities around the world in Asia, Europe and the United States.

The new 60,000-square-foot facility will be located in Montreal and the masks produced will be primarily used to supply the Canadian market.

The SNC-Lavalin’s Industrial Solutions team provides engineering services in project management, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering, process and automation, as well as in fire protection.

To house the brand new production lines, an existing building is being retrofitted to host multiple new machines with overall capacity of millions of masks per month. New conveyors, a ventilation system, a compressor, a packaging system and a central palletizer will also be installed.

One of the main challenges is the very tight timeline, and more specifically the preparation of the existing site to properly host multiple new mask manufacturing lines.

“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, our clients from the pharmaceutical, biotechnological, medical device and protection equipment industries never had such challenges. They are required to adapt quickly to the public health emergency needs, which aim to save lives and win against the pandemic,” says Normand Dubuc, vice-president, general manager, Industrial Solutions at SNC-Lavalin.

“Our specialized resources in the manufacturing sector, and more specifically in the pharmaceutical and agri-food sectors, can be mobilized rapidly with flexibility, agility and precision, in order to meet the quick turnaround and demanding implementation requirements.”