Pierce County effort turns to 3D printing for reusable medical masks during coronavirus crisis
Personal protective equipment such as face masks is becoming an ever-increasing concern for medical workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
To that end, FabLab Tacoma’s community high-tech workspace and Team ZEVA of ZEVA Aero have joined an effort to use 3D printing to make reusable masks for medical workers.
According to a notification on FabLab’s website, “FabLab and ZEVA members all over the Puget Sound are using their 3D printers to print the masks as well as a plurality of printers at FabLab Tacoma.
“The first goal is to provide 50 masks to Madigan Army Medical Center. We would like to partner with local businesses to expand this effort. An example might be to use 3D printing to make tooling for short-run injection molding.”
The item, called the Montana Mask, is a “3D-printable, high efficiency filtration mask that can be fitted to the provider’s face and sanitized between uses,” according to Make the Masks website. The original design was created by three inventors in Billings, Montana.
Since publishing the design, there have been at least 30,000 downloads of the designs from countries all over the world, according to Billings TV station KTVQ.
The local version of the project is being shepherded by Stephen Tibbitts, who also leads ZEVA AERO, which is focused on designing personal air vehicles.
ZEVA stands for Zero-emissions Electric Vertical Aircraft.
While you may think that is “Jetsons” level tech that is better left to the future, Tibbitts said this is exactly the right time to push ahead.
“A personal flying machine keeps you isolated,” he told The News Tribune in a recent phone interview. “Think about it. You don’t have to fly around jam-packed with others.”
As for the masks, Tibbitts said “3D printing is not the most efficient way to produce, but it’s a stop gap, and hopefully we can eventually switch to a different mode of manufacturing.”
Though the masks have not been formally approved by the FDA or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the FDA has offered guidance online for those who wish to make ones that work.
More information on FabLab’s GoFundMe to pay for material costs of the mask printing drive and mask instructions are at fablabeducation.org/masks/.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 1:51 PM.
