09.11.19
Wilmington, DE
www.dupont.com
2019 Nonwovens Sales: $1 billion
Key Personnel
Marc Doyle, president, CEO specialty products division; Kevin Corby, global technology, director
Plants
Richmond, VA; Luxembourg
ISO Status
All plants are ISO 9002 certified including the Luxembourg facility
Brands
DuPont Tyvek, Typar
Major Markets
Construction, healthcare, protective apparel, industrial filtration, absorbents, home furnishings, envelopes, geotextiles, graphics, packaging, footwear, automotive
Answering the call for personal protective equipment (PPE) in the fight against coronavirus, DuPont’s Tyvek material has seen unprecedented global demand in 2020, which has led to increased investment and improvements in the material.
In April 2020, DuPont launched the #TyvekTogether program to increase the overall availability of Tyvek personal protective garments to help combat the spread of Covid-19 and protect health care workers. This initiative is leading to the delivery of up to six million additional non-surgical isolation gowns per month by enabling others to join it in protecting even more frontline responders and includes investment in Richmond, VA.
“There’s a critical need for protective apparel, and we believe that working with other companies to convert their existing cut-and-sew manufacturing capacity to protective garment fabrication is the fastest way to protect more people,” says John Richard, vice president and general manager DuPont Safety Solutions. “Our dedicated employees around the world are working 24/7 to make more Tyvek material and patterns available to more organizations, working together to protect those who are protecting us.”
Included in this effort is investment in equipment and technology at DuPont’s Richmond, VA, plant to significantly increase its production of Tyvek and Tychem garments globally to meet the ever-increasing demand for PPE. Additionally, the #TyvekTogether Program will introduce a new specialized Tyvek fabric to enable an increase in the amount of garment production for the Covid-19 response to 15 million garments a month.
Tyvek style 1222A has similar barrier properties to the core DuPont Tyvek 400 garment offerings with adjusted fabric drape and hand to optimize material usage. It is available in roll-good form to existing and new customers with available cut-and-sew capabilities to increase the total amount of Tyvek garments available as quickly as possible.
In the months since announcing the #TyvekTogether program, DuPont has launched several partnerships. Companies as diverse as Ansell, Home Depot, Under Armour, Thermaxx and Ferrara International have joined in the program to help design, develop and supply PPE materials to fight the spread of Covid-19.
DuPont’s Tyvek business is a part of its Safety and Construction business. During its second quarter earnings call, the business reported that demand for Tyvek protective garments increased 60% compared to last year, which was enabled by efforts to increase capacity and redirect supply from non-personal protection markets. Despite the strength in Tyvek protective garments, sales in other segments of the business including construction, which has traditionally been Tyvek’s key market, have declined, having been impacted by stay-at-home orders issued across the globe.
Prior to the pandemic, DuPont was already investing in Tyvek production. In June 2018, the company said it would invest more than $400 million to expand Tyvek nonwovens capacity at its facility Luxembourg. The production expansion, which will add a new building and a third operating line at the site, is scheduled to start up in 2021.
“Global demand for DuPont Tyvek continues to grow worldwide in all of our key end-use markets,” says Rose Lee, president—DuPont Safety & Construction. “This capacity expansion plan is a critical step in growing the Tyvek business, maintaining our leadership in nonwoven materials, and delivering the innovation customers expect from DuPont.”
In addition to PPE, Tyvek is found in a number of key markets including building envelope solutions, medical packaging and graphics and protective packaging.
Tyvek has had a tremendous impact across numerous industries, resulting in the creation of new categories of products, such as house wrap, which helped revolutionize home construction; setting new standards for personal protective apparel; enabling advancements in medical device technology; and playing an important role in many other applications. DuPont, along with its customers, continues to develop new Tyvek products and applications to meet evolving marketplace needs. Designers of consumer products for lighting and fashion accessories and apparel are increasingly demanding Tyvek for their products because of its lightweight durability and texture.
In corporate news, DuPont merged with Dow to form DowDuPont in late 2017 creating one of the largest chemical specialty companies in the world. Then, in June 2019, DowDuPont broke into three spin-off companies—agriculture, material science and specialty products—which were each to be independent and publicly traded. The material science business, which contains Tyvek, was renamed DuPont. During the spin off DuPont combined Kevlar, Nomex and Tyvek brands together under a single Safety Business. Merging these brands’ collective scale and dexterity are delivering and uncovering results that make an impact for personal protection, aerospace, automotive, healthcare, defense, electrical infrastructure and other industrial markets.
www.dupont.com
2019 Nonwovens Sales: $1 billion
Key Personnel
Marc Doyle, president, CEO specialty products division; Kevin Corby, global technology, director
Plants
Richmond, VA; Luxembourg
ISO Status
All plants are ISO 9002 certified including the Luxembourg facility
Brands
DuPont Tyvek, Typar
Major Markets
Construction, healthcare, protective apparel, industrial filtration, absorbents, home furnishings, envelopes, geotextiles, graphics, packaging, footwear, automotive
Answering the call for personal protective equipment (PPE) in the fight against coronavirus, DuPont’s Tyvek material has seen unprecedented global demand in 2020, which has led to increased investment and improvements in the material.
In April 2020, DuPont launched the #TyvekTogether program to increase the overall availability of Tyvek personal protective garments to help combat the spread of Covid-19 and protect health care workers. This initiative is leading to the delivery of up to six million additional non-surgical isolation gowns per month by enabling others to join it in protecting even more frontline responders and includes investment in Richmond, VA.
“There’s a critical need for protective apparel, and we believe that working with other companies to convert their existing cut-and-sew manufacturing capacity to protective garment fabrication is the fastest way to protect more people,” says John Richard, vice president and general manager DuPont Safety Solutions. “Our dedicated employees around the world are working 24/7 to make more Tyvek material and patterns available to more organizations, working together to protect those who are protecting us.”
Included in this effort is investment in equipment and technology at DuPont’s Richmond, VA, plant to significantly increase its production of Tyvek and Tychem garments globally to meet the ever-increasing demand for PPE. Additionally, the #TyvekTogether Program will introduce a new specialized Tyvek fabric to enable an increase in the amount of garment production for the Covid-19 response to 15 million garments a month.
Tyvek style 1222A has similar barrier properties to the core DuPont Tyvek 400 garment offerings with adjusted fabric drape and hand to optimize material usage. It is available in roll-good form to existing and new customers with available cut-and-sew capabilities to increase the total amount of Tyvek garments available as quickly as possible.
In the months since announcing the #TyvekTogether program, DuPont has launched several partnerships. Companies as diverse as Ansell, Home Depot, Under Armour, Thermaxx and Ferrara International have joined in the program to help design, develop and supply PPE materials to fight the spread of Covid-19.
DuPont’s Tyvek business is a part of its Safety and Construction business. During its second quarter earnings call, the business reported that demand for Tyvek protective garments increased 60% compared to last year, which was enabled by efforts to increase capacity and redirect supply from non-personal protection markets. Despite the strength in Tyvek protective garments, sales in other segments of the business including construction, which has traditionally been Tyvek’s key market, have declined, having been impacted by stay-at-home orders issued across the globe.
Prior to the pandemic, DuPont was already investing in Tyvek production. In June 2018, the company said it would invest more than $400 million to expand Tyvek nonwovens capacity at its facility Luxembourg. The production expansion, which will add a new building and a third operating line at the site, is scheduled to start up in 2021.
“Global demand for DuPont Tyvek continues to grow worldwide in all of our key end-use markets,” says Rose Lee, president—DuPont Safety & Construction. “This capacity expansion plan is a critical step in growing the Tyvek business, maintaining our leadership in nonwoven materials, and delivering the innovation customers expect from DuPont.”
In addition to PPE, Tyvek is found in a number of key markets including building envelope solutions, medical packaging and graphics and protective packaging.
Tyvek has had a tremendous impact across numerous industries, resulting in the creation of new categories of products, such as house wrap, which helped revolutionize home construction; setting new standards for personal protective apparel; enabling advancements in medical device technology; and playing an important role in many other applications. DuPont, along with its customers, continues to develop new Tyvek products and applications to meet evolving marketplace needs. Designers of consumer products for lighting and fashion accessories and apparel are increasingly demanding Tyvek for their products because of its lightweight durability and texture.
In corporate news, DuPont merged with Dow to form DowDuPont in late 2017 creating one of the largest chemical specialty companies in the world. Then, in June 2019, DowDuPont broke into three spin-off companies—agriculture, material science and specialty products—which were each to be independent and publicly traded. The material science business, which contains Tyvek, was renamed DuPont. During the spin off DuPont combined Kevlar, Nomex and Tyvek brands together under a single Safety Business. Merging these brands’ collective scale and dexterity are delivering and uncovering results that make an impact for personal protection, aerospace, automotive, healthcare, defense, electrical infrastructure and other industrial markets.