Charlotte-Based Honeywell CEO Speaks About Masks During White House COVID-19 Presser

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Darius Adamczyk, the chairman and CEO of Honeywell, a Charlotte-based industrial technology company, spoke during a White House press briefing with President Donald Trump on Monday.

Adamczyk announced a $10 million fund for all hourly and administrative Honeywell employees who are facing hardships during the coronavirus crisis.

“We’re an industrial technology company, and one the businesses that we’re in, protect the industrial worker. What we’re doing today, we’re repurposing a lot of that equipment to serve the healthcare worker,” Adamczyk said.

To address the growing demand of masks, Honeywell is ramping up production and making millions of the N95 masks in the United States.

The company is expanding manufacturing operations in a factory in Smithfield, Rhode Island, which also produces UVEX safety glasses.

Those N95 face masks will be delivered to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for use to support health, safety and emergency response workers. Honeywell expects the new mask production line in Smithfield will create at least 500 jobs.

N95 masks provide respiratory protection and “reduce the wearer’s exposure to airborne particles, from small particle aerosols to large droplets,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “N95 respirators are tight-fitting respirators that filter out at least 95 percent of particles in the air, including large and small particles.”

Honeywell is also adding a face mask production operation at its Phoenix Engines campus in Arizona. This location is one of the company’s largest.

This Phoenix expansion, coupled with production in Rhode Island, will allow Honeywell to produce more than 20 million N95 disposable masks monthly to combat COVID-19 in the U.S.

Honeywell officials say hiring is already underway for an estimated 500 or more new jobs in Arizona, which will bring the total between both operations to 1,000. The production will send masks to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.