ACE Surgical repurposes capabilities to package swabs for COVID tests

ACE Surgical Supply Co. and 3D printing company EnvisonTec have partnered up to package and sterilize 3D printed nasal swabs used for COVID-19 testing, the company announced in a press release.

ACE Surgical is using its excess capacity to package and sterilize the 3D printed nasal swabs including in coronavirus test kits. Currently, the company is processing nearly 50,000 testing swabs per day and is building capacity at its Brockton, Massachusetts facility to package 1 million swabs per month.

ACE expects to provide millions of sterile nasal swabs to health care providers and municipalities that are desperately needed to test for the virus. To date, several international hospitals and state municipalities have ordered the swabs packaged by ACE.

“Following the American Dental Association’s guidance recommending that U.S dental practitioners suspend seeing patients for elective procedures, we knew that we had to quickly adapt our operations,” said Craig Carchidi, CEO of ACE Surgical. “Our entire team has embraced our effort to switch gears and package an essential medical tool that will aid the work of health care providers to implement proper testing and tracing of the COVID-19 virus. As we expand our swab production, we maintain our unwavering commitment to serve the dental-surgical community as a leading global provider of bone regenerative products and compatible dental implant systems.”

Since April, when the company launched this new initiative to package and sterilize swabs for testing, ACE recalled its entire 15-member production team, reassigned and trained a team to work in a clean room, and created a roadmap for expansion that includes hiring new employees to meet the growing production demand.

A subsidiary of Henry Schein, Inc., ACE Surgical is a manufacturer of dental implants, bone regenerative materials, and a variety of other dental surgical products. For more information, visit acesurgical.com.