A Kentucky-based manufacturer has created a machine that automates the process of sewing pleated, reusable face masks. Daniel Becker, president of Becker Automated, says his machine can produce as many as 600 masks an hour.

Becker Automated in Hopkinsville, KY, manufactures high-speed, automated sewing equipment for the textile industry, and at his wife’s suggestion, Becker decided to whip up a device that could create face masks, to help the fight against the spread of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends people wear cloth face coverings in public to help people who may have the coronavirus from transmitting it to others, and many state and local governments have mandated their use during the pandemic.

Daniel Becker of Becker Automated has created a machine that can mass produce pleated, reusable face masks. Image courtesy of WKDZ Radio

“I tried to make a mask that’s very easy to take care of, easy to fold and put in your pocket,” Becker says.

He told WKDZ Radio recently that the machine “required a lot of new inventions,” but he likely won’t have time to patent them, since the product is so needed right now. “The need far outweighs any proprietary knowledge being lost,” he says.

Becker estimates that a facility with two of his mask-making machines with 24-hour staffing could produce as many as 200,000 cloth masks a week.

The first mask machine Becker Automated produced was headed off to Top 40 distributor Cintas (asi/162167). “They’re going to be our beta testers for this product,” Becker told the radio station.

Becker hopes to be able to produce about two of the mask-making machines per week and get them distributed to manufacturers that can use them. (Companies that use the machines would requires fairly substantial facilities, due to the large amounts of thread and fabric consumed in the process, he says.)

Says Becker: “This is something that’s very needed and very wanted, I believe.”