Development of Custom and One-Size-Fits-All Masks for COVID-19 Personal Protection

这个NSERC联盟新冠肺炎项目与艾伯塔省高级MNT产品中心(ACAMP)合作的首要目标是为加拿大一线医护人员和普通公众生产可持续的呼吸器选项，并提高其可用性。由于当前的一次性选项导致供应短缺，并通过不适当的匹配对许多医护人员造成皮肤创伤，因此研究提供可重复使用的选项并提高可用性是至关重要的。我们将开发自定义和一刀切的方法来生成遮罩几何图形，并研究这两种方法的优势和局限性。我们该项目的第一个目标将是开发体外和体内实验室方法来定量评估呼吸器的性能。体外方法将利用装有称重传感器的塑料面部模型来测量力和过滤水平，从而允许过滤和施加在模拟面部上的力之间的关联。然后，活体测试将让人类志愿者使用类似的过滤测量方法，并感受到个人舒适度，以提供对口罩性能的进一步了解，包括口罩/组织界面。然后，我们将利用这些开发的实验室方法来调查定制和一刀切口罩的性能，以推动进一步的改进。尽管有一条用于生产定制医用级硅胶口罩密封件的添加剂制造路线，但我们尚未调整生产变量(例如化学成分)以优化应用中的性能。在考虑一刀切的口罩时，我们的目标是优化口罩的几何形状，以增加使用的舒适性。我们对定制和一刀切方法的比较将提供有价值的见解，以了解这两种方法的优势和局限性，以便更好地确定实际使用选项(例如，戴口罩获取食品杂货与12小时医院轮班)。将通过该项目开发的可重复使用的N95呼吸器选项将改善加拿大一线医护人员在新冠肺炎疫情期间的工作条件，并为普通公众提供更可持续的选择，以减少病毒传播。

The overarching objective of this NSERC Alliance COVID-19 project in partnership with the Alberta Centre for Advanced MNT Products (ACAMP) is to produce sustainable respirator options with improved usability for Canadian frontline health care workers and general public. With current disposable options resulting in supply shortages and causing skin trauma on many health care workers through improper fit, research towards providing reusable options with improved usability is critical. We will develop custom and one-size-fits-all approaches for generating mask geometry and investigate the advantages and limitations of both approaches. Our first objective of the project will be to develop in vitro and in vivo laboratory methods to quantitatively evaluate respirator performance. In vitro methods will utilize plastic face models instrumented with load cells to measure force and filtration level, allowing for correlation of filtration and force exerted on simulated faces. In vivo tests will then involve human volunteers using similar filtration measurements alongside perceived personal comfort to provide further insight into mask performance including the mask/tissue interface. We will then utilize these developed lab methods to investigate the performance of custom and one-size-fits-all masks to drive further improvement. Despite having an additive manufacturing route for producing custom medical grade silicone mask seals, we have yet to tune production variables (e.g. chemical composition) to optimize performance in application. When considering one-size-fits-all masks, we will aim to optimize mask geometry to increase comfort in use. Our comparisons between custom and one-size-fits-all approaches will provide valuable insight to understand the advantages and limitations of both approaches to better identify practical usage options (e.g. wearing a mask to get groceries vs. a 12-hour hospital shift). The reusable N95 respirator options to be developed through this project will improve working conditions for Canadian frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide more sustainable options for the general public to reduce viral transmission.