Strama-MPS has created a mask production in and for the region in record time

The first machine is already producing, and with fine tuning it should soon run even better. In three shifts it will produce 85000 masks per day. Machine two and three have already been accepted and are currently being set up, explains Maximilian Krauß, Marketing Director of Strama-MPS. Then the daily calculation will be 85000 times 3.

"100 percent made in Germany", is written as a quality mark on the 50 piece packages. The company wants to make an active contribution to the demand from politics to be less dependent on deliveries from abroad in the future for medical products.

Blue columns and twice as many white ones are stacked in foil sealed in the entrance area of plant 2, but they have nothing to do with the Greek-Classical version, the Strama columns are made of rolled out fabric and fleece material for masks needed everywhere.

New walls and air supply for clean room

Participants benefit from the know-how on site. The knowledge and employees from different departments were pulled together at short notice, and the early internal digital networking helped a great deal, as Krauß emphasizes. Planning was done from the home office and the actual offices, while at the same time a hall within the hall with new walls was built in Plant 2. All under our own management and with a self-sufficient air supply, so that we could create a clean room suitable for the production of sterile surgical masks.

The city's economic development office informed the companies in the region about the offer. Orders, "small" over the minimum purchase of 1000 pieces up to 100000 have already been received. Strama-MPS does not want to rake in the fast cashing Euro. If you buy a box, i.e. 1000 pieces, the price per mask is 40 Cent, if you order more, it goes down to 28 Cent. That is on pre-Corona price level. A fair offer from the traditional Straubing company, for other companies, offices, schools and above all hospitals, which all depend on the masks. Krauß informs that the Strama management wants to donate 1000 masks for each school to the Straubing-Bogen school association.

Worldwide Strama-MPS is known for its special machine construction, but the performance of other companies is also known. One company from Amberg already had the mask machine in their program, they ordered there.

Tinkering with own improvements

Of course, this was faster than constructing it themselves. However, anyone infected with the technology virus often wants to and can "refine" something. For example, the rolls for the threads had to be given a different size. Another company would have ordered and waited for delivery, explains Thomas Lupzig, who heads mask production, with a smile. For his team, it was a call to the other department - "half an hour, and everything was ready". The "photo specialists" are still tinkering with the lenses and program so that 25 pieces are quickly and precisely stacked and above all checked for quality. Then the packing procedure goes even faster and replaces the slower human control.

Up to now, everyday masks have been produced, surgical masks with special fleece will soon be added. The much sought-after fleece for this purpose had to be purchased by the purchasing department. "More sought-after and even more difficult to get than toilet paper in the early Corona times," Krauß explains. He and Lupzig are pleased that so many colleagues have pulled together. Two of them, Martin Kerscher and Michael Metz, for example, spent two weeks in Amberg to get to know the machines in detail. Together they set up machine one, adjusted it and took care of the optimisation. "It was a feat of strength for everyone", both explain.

The first delivery was planned for the first week of July. But then they overhauled themselves, the first masks are already on their way to customers. And apart from the security that the masks will provide, Lupzig winked, after many hours of wearing Strama masks, and added a special quality feature for the masks "made in SR": "Our earbands are particularly comfortable!

Article originally published: Straubinger Tagblatt, 06.06.2020, Photos: Ulli Scharrer