From metal fabricator to medical bed manufacturer in COVID-19 crisis

These beds, set up as part of an alternative care facility in McCormick Place in Chicago in early April, were sourced from Accurate Metal Fabricating, a local custom fabricator. Photos courtesy of Accurate Medical Products, a division of Accurate Metal Fabricating

On March 28 the Chicago media started reporting that city officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were planning to turn McCormick Place, one of the homes to FABTECH, North America’s largest sheet metal technology event, into a field hospital. Jeff Kaminsky, national sales manager for Accurate Perforating and Accurate Metal Fabricating of Chicago, realized he and his company could finally do something to help with the coronavirus crisis. That’s when he started working the phones.

He didn’t wait until the morning. He called after the 10 p.m. newscast and reached out to the Army Corps of Engineers. Instead of leaving a message, he had his call transferred to the office manager who actually picked up. At that time, Kaminsky asked if they needed medical cabinets, partition walls, or carts. He tried to explain that Accurate Metal Fabricating could build anything they needed.

He didn’t get specifics at that time, but he did get a list of contacts from the local Chicago command of the Army Corps of Engineers to key players at the Pentagon. The next day he sent an email and received a response from Col. Aaron Reisinger, Chicago district commander for the Army Corps of Engineers. Reisinger said that he would pass along Accurate Metal Fabricating’s information to those that were vetting suppliers for the transition of the exhibition hall to a field hospital. This led to the metal fabricator becoming a manufacturer of emergency beds.

The FABRICATOR: What happened after the initial contact with the Army Corps of Engineers?

Kaminsky: A few days after that phone call, I was contacted, and they asked about the bed. I had been calling around and had learned that traditional sources didn't have beds, and if they could get them, they were coming from overseas and it would take a long time. I was told four weeks, six weeks, and even 12 weeks. I knew that we could make beds. So while I was waiting to hear back from the Army Corps of Engineers, I was working with our engineering team and a couple of my colleagues in designing a bed.

Around this same time, I had been contacted by a local hospital asking us to make partition walls. What they were doing was taking a conference room and setting it up for more patient space. They were using IV poles on wheels, ropes, and bedsheets to create separation between the beds. I couldn’t believe that was happening here in Chicago.

So we were ready to go and help out as best as we could during this crisis.

FAB: Where did the design inspiration come for the emergency medical bed?

Kaminsky: I initially saw a medical mattress, and I contacted the company. They’re local, so we bought those mattresses from them.

As for the design, I knew a couple of things. I knew it had to be made fast and be made in the U.S. I couldn’t rely on outside parts. I knew it needed to be able to be used for COVID-19 patients that had pneumonia. That means you needed the bed to have the ability to elevate the lungs, the upper body. So we created a concept, sort of like a lounge chair at a pool. Of course, the bed also needed to be mobile, so they could move the patients. So the beds have wheels on them.

Accurate Metal Fabricating designed, manufactured, and delivered 1,800 beds to McCormick Place in a little over one week.

We actually helped the people responsible for setting up McCormick Place decide what sort of bed they might be looking for. After our conversation, RFQs were sent out the same day. We were one of five manufacturers that bid on the project, and ours was selected because of functionality, price, and of course time. These beds can be assembled in under five minutes.

It’s also a very comfortable bed.

FAB: Can you provide more details about the beds?

Kaminsky: The beds were made out of steel. They each have about 19 different parts or assemblies. They include things like the headboard, the footboard, and both rails. When we fabricated these beds in those few days, we produced more than 600,000 fabricated parts.

FAB: Did you have trouble getting material?

Kaminsky: No. Once we told our suppliers what we were working on, we went to the front of the line. It was like that for every one of our suppliers. In fact, I want to give a shout out to our powder coater, E & R Powder Coatings in Chicago. The company’s president, Mark Clausius, and his team did an exceptional job for us. They came to us, picked up the raw parts, powder coated them with an antimicrobial finish, and delivered them for us to McCormick Place because they were actually closer.

FAB: What was the turnaround time for these beds?

Kaminsky: We did 1,800 beds in a few days. We built a prototype on a Saturday. We started laser cutting rails and things on Saturday and Sunday and 25 people worked overtime to assemble the beds. We started delivering on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The beds were delivered in 20 truckloads.

We had every operation working on these beds. We pushed all other work aside. It was a national emergency, and we had everybody working on this.

FAB: Do you have other opportunities to supply these beds in other parts of the country?

Kaminsky: People weren’t coming to us and looking for beds. We are a custom fabricator. What I am hoping is that other people around the country see what we’ve done and contact us because we can save them a lot of money.

FAB: Do you think this whole crisis will cause people to rethink international sourcing of certain goods and instead take a long look at manufacturing goods domestically?

Kaminsky: I think we’ve learned a lot of lessons from this epidemic. For instance, we now realize that we were unprepared in many ways for this type of an event. So we’ve had to build field hospitals across the country. New York has been really bad, but it was the original hotspot. Now breakouts are occurring all over the country, different places peaking at different times.

Because of all of this, hospitals, FEMA, and other emergency agencies around the country are asking us to quote and supply them with both beds and partition walls. These are things that can be easily taken apart and put together. It can be done very quickly. All of these institutions and agencies are buying these things and then putting them in storage. They are not going to be caught in a position for this to happen again to our country, where we are putting sick patients on essentially cots. These sick and dying people need to be comfortable. They’re going to have these items in the future, so that a country that is as wealthy as we are is not going to be caught off guard.

This is not the fault of any one administration. Over the last 10, 20, and 30 years, we became comfortable with how this world was integrated. That’s not to say that there’s not a need to do things overseas because there always is. But the advantage that we had is that we fabricate and deliver the beds quickly.

FAB: Do you think this is an example of people not understanding what metal fabricators can do? Do you believe people think that beds like this just come from bed manufacturers?

Kaminsky: I do think people just assume beds like this just come from a bed manufacturer. That is why I have been reaching out to share our story and asking friends to share our story. I keep hearing about people that are suffering, and yet our bed is about half the price of what the bed manufacturers offer.

FAB: Does this put Accurate Metal Fabricating in a new market space?

Kaminsky: It absolutely does. We’ve, in the span of two weeks, gone from being two companies, Accurate Metal Fabricating and Accurate Perforating, and launching new products to creating a third company, Accurate Medical Products. The day we started making these products, I reached out to our IT director about checking on a URL and it was available. We now have a website.