The Survivair and Willson divisions of Bacou-Dalloz have consolidated their product lines in the Americas effective September 2004. As a result, reusable respirators will now be offered only under the Survivair brand, while the Willson brand concentrates on disposable respiratory products. There will be a brand transition period for reusable respirators through the end of 2004, and a total switchover within 2005.
According to the consolidation plan, the entire respiratory product lines from both companies were evaluated on the basis of benefits to the user, and the best products were selected to remain in each line. These include air purifying respirators, powered air purifying respirators (PAPR), supplied air respirators (SAR), and self-contained breathing apparatus, which will now be marketed only under the Survivair brand name.
Disposable respiratory products, including the Freedom and new SAF-T-FIT Plus, will be marketed exclusively under the Willson brand.
The new Survivair line of reusable respirators will include 14 half-mask and eight full facepiece size and model configurations, including such brands as ValuAir, PREMIER, Opti-Fit, Blue 1 and SurvivairMax. With appropriate conversion kits, selected models of half-mask respirators and Opti-Fit full facepiece respirators can be readily converted to PAPR or continuous-flow SAR configurations.