A long-time producer of protective clothing for the food manufacturing industry, Top Dog Manufacturing (TDM), Prince Edward Island's 2018 Exporter of the Year, looked to NRC IRAP for advisory services and funding to expand its operations to add a line of certified health and medical personal protective equipment for frontline health care workers.
With NRC IRAP's support, the firm has been able to hire additional expertise, connect with technical and regulatory experts, validate the structural integrity of their products, and adopt new manufacturing processes to expand their operations. Advice from the company's NRC IRAP industrial technology advisor allowed TDM to prepare a business model for financial growth and explore new opportunities to test their products. TDM is now focussing on producing medical gowns which meet Health Canada regulations for use in the context of COVID-19, and they've added more shifts to address demand for their product.
"Support from NRC IRAP and its experts has been invaluable, providing us with the right advice and contacts as we branch out and expand into the manufacturing of medical gowns to help Canada respond to the COVID-19 pandemic."