In the News

EAST LONGMEADOW -- Hand washing is an important weapon in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

But so is hand drying, the folks at Excel Dryer in East Longmeadow reminded the public and U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, on Wednesday.

Company CEO and president Denis Gagnon, his wife, Nancy, and their son, Excel vice president Bill Gagnon, hosted Neal for a factory tour and to show off a stand-alone hand drying unit Excel is making along with one of its material suppliers. The new unit -- designed by the partner company -- brings towel-free warm-air hand drying to testing sites or other locations where people fighting coronavirus need to keep their hands clean.

“When you talk about innovation, they did it right here," Neal, D-Springfield, said following the tour. "It’s happening right here in East Longmeadow.

And it wouldn’t be happening without Neal, said Denis Gagnon, inventor of the XLERATOR design of hand dryer.

Excel relies on suppliers -- increasingly U.S. suppliers -- for materials and components. But its stainless steel supplier -- Mercury Corp -- couldn’t ship the panels it makes for Excel because Mercury wasn’t listed as an essential business under New York state rules, Denis Gagnon said.

But Massachusetts listed Excel as essential because of its role supplying parts retailers like Grainger and in supplying the building trade with a product that can help fight the spread of disease.

Denis Gagnon said it was Neal, and Chief of Staff William Tranghese, who got the right paperwork into the truck driver’s hands.

“Because New York state police were stopping people at the state line,” Gagnon said.

Excel has all 52 of its employees working either from home -- for office and sales staffers -- or properly spaced in the factory and warehouse wearing protective gear.

What they are making is a mobile hand-sanitizing solution.

Mercury makes the stand for the mobile units and Excel makes the dryer, a model with an HEPA filtration system capable of 99.999 percent of viruses from the air stream.

It goes next to a washing sink, Bill Gagnon said, so frontline workers can dry their hands without towels after washing.

Excel has already donated units to Massachusetts testing stations at Gillette Stadium and at the Big E in West Springfield.

Denis Gagnon said Exel’s distributors have added the unit to their product lines. Because it was designed for trade show booths it stands alone and doesn’t need wiring, only a plug.

“We think they’ll be quite popular,” Denis Gagnon said.

Neal said testing -- at stations where the dryers will be used -- is key in giving people confidence to head out of self seclusion and reopen the economy.

Also, he praised the Gagnon’s for using domestic parts. Neal said the county is learning that depending on foreign manufacturers for necessary equipment is a danger.

Neal has made several media visits to factories impacted in one way or another by coronavirus and the fight against it, including a tour of Cartamundi, also in East Longmeadow, with Gov. Charlie Baker where they learned how the toy maker is now making protective equipment and met with Cartamundi executives as well as folks from Cartamundi customer Hasbro.