COVID Mask Project : Emergency PPE Development
Independent Project
Spring 2020
The COVID Mask Project was founded by myself and Will Hovik in response to the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. It is an open-source effort to provide designs, test results, and continued engineering support to any organization with the resources and drive to donate respirators at scale.
INHALE
EXHALE
REPURPOSING FULL-FACE SNORKEL MASKS AS RESPIRATORS WITH THE UNIVERSAL FILTER CARTRIDGE
We organized a small group of friends and colleagues and in four weeks developed the Universal Filter Cartridge, an injection molded attachment that converts snorkel masks into full face respirators compatible with any filtration media. Full face snorkel masks are ideal for retrofitting as emergency respirators because they are readily available in multiple sizes, leverage non-medical supply chains, have great visibility, and already make a tight seal to the face.
FILTER MATERIALS
A FILTER CARTRIDGE DESIGNED TO SEAL TIGHTLY WITH ANY AVAILABLE MATERIAL
The Universal Filter Cartridge extends the use of snorkel-mask based respirators, such as those distributed by MasksOn.org, beyond the supply limitations of commercially available filters by allowing users to easily create filters from any available filtration material, whether that be MERV-rated HVAC filters or paper towels. To assemble a new filter cartridge, simply cut the media to size and secure with a hose clamp or mason jar lid.
The Universal Filter Cartridge has been iteratively designed and tested with several different snorkel masks, and builds off lessons learned by several other groups working to develop emergency PPE, including the Pneumask Project by the Prakash Lab at Stanford and the CV19 Filter Adapter by Dominion Engineering.
We performed two types of testing during development: mask leakage testing where e-cigarette vapor was used to visualize leak paths through the masks, and filter media testing to measure filter breathability and filtration efficiency. We found that the Dolfino Frontier snorkel mask is best suited for retrofitting as a respirator because it has the fewest leak paths. We also found that a single PM2.5 filter or 2 layers of MERV-15 HVAC filter effectively remove aerosolized vapor while offering low breathing resistance. See Released Documents for more detailed information on testing, including procedures and results.
MASK LEAK TESTING
More Info: RD.007_(Mask Testing)
FILTER MEDIA TESTING
More Info: RD.008_(Filter Testing)
As of May 2020, COVID Mask Project has partnered with MasksOn.org, and the Universal Filter Cartridge is baselined as their backup filtration system in the event that there is another shortage of medical and industrial filters.
Thank you to the COVID Mask Project team (William Hovik, Lisa Thomas, Riley Dunn, Vishnu Sanigepalli, Jayna Coe, Austin Carr, Priyanka Kompella, and Benjamin Bradley) for jumping in to a project so open-ended and putting in the time on top of your normal jobs to get this done. Thanks also to our advisors (Matthew Gendron, Geoff Smith, Dr. Dac Nguyen, Dr. Mark Yim, Dr. Ann Lee-Karlon, Matthew Matera, Foster Collins, Davide Pavia) for the guidance and moral support, to our collaborators (Dr. Manu Prakash, Thibaut Pollina, David Arguelles, James Roll) for their inspiring work, and to our partners (MasksOn, Honeybee Robotics and Protolabs) for their commitment, excitement and flexibility.