AD Process Equipment Helps Increase Nationwide Supply of Hand Sanitizer

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, AD Process Equipment joined the nationwide effort to increase production of FDA-approved, alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Motivated by spiking case numbers along with a shortage of PPE and disinfectants for healthcare workers, ADPE (under its former name Spec Engineering) partnered with Sweet Solutions, a neighboring confectionery manufacturer and Sandymount, a revolutionary process technology company in the brewing industry, to quickly fulfill this need. Within days the wheels were in motion to convert space in the Sweet Solutions FDA contract manufacturing facility into a bottling line for hand sanitizer production.

Utilizing partners such as food, beverage, and flavor solutions company, Flavorchem, to review our alcohol safety protocols, ADPE assisted Sweet Solutions to take additional safety measures including masks, gloves, and static-control lab coats for employees to wear during production.

In the first 3-4 days, the production process was mostly manual and very slow. It started as a four-person operation, only making 100 bottles an hour. This system was not efficient enough to complete the order; Sweet Solutions turned to ADPE to commission a bottling line, high-efficiency labeler, and heat sealer to automate the process. After the changes were made to the process line, it became a 14-person operation running 2 shifts, yielding 30,000 bottles a day. The system blended, filled, and packaged 450,000 bottles for this order.

As the contract neared completion, AD Process Equipment continued to support companies like Sweet Solutions, offering services in mixing, blending, bottling, and packaging hand sanitizer.