The COVID-19 pandemic has hit local companies hard from the start, and Access Unlimited was no different - business dropped to just 15 percent during the height of the outbreak.

The town of Binghamton company typically designs and manufactures lifts and accessibility options to help individuals with handicaps into homes and vehicles.

Rather than shut down, owner Tom Egan decided to shift his focus to producing PPE.

"I thought, the most important thing is to keep our morale up, is to feel like we're engaged in our community and keep a sense of hope, and working and building PPE is really what did that for us," said Egan.

In the early stages, the demand for PPE began to skyrocket. Egan made contact with three facilities in New York City who had 200 COVID-19 patients alone.

"Literally they were cutting up bed sheets to make patient gowns, they had no masks, and most importantly, they had no face shields, so they were putting their staff at risk," said Egan.

Access Unlimited began 3D printing face shields for hospitals throughout the northeast.

Employees also produced gowns and face coverings.

While Egan's company was producing and shipping hundreds of products, he made the call to not charge hospitals a dime.

"We really felt like we were part of something bigger than us and it gave us the strength to do all of the other changes that were necessary to get us through the crisis," said Egan.

Now in late July, business is said to be back and better than ever.

The demand for handicap lifts for boats has skyrocketed, as they are the only company in the world with such a product.

Egan says he's now looking to hire additional staff to keep up.

"In the end, now we are as busy as we've ever been, we're ahead of where we were last year for sales, and most importantly we're unified as a team and people are really feeling the joy of what we do," said Egan.

While the demand for PPE isn't what it was at the start, Access Unlimited plans to continue producing it as long as there is a need.