With a reported limited supply of the N-95 respiratory masks available and an ever-increasing demand, one local group has joined the effort to help provide the hard-to-find apparatuses.
John Cochran and Ralph Smith, instructors for the Delta Overload Robotics team at Gentry High School, a For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology robotics competition team, are busy during this break in classroom learning making 3-D masks that will be donated to local health personnel.
The equipment, called the Montana Mask, was created and designed by a trio of medical professionals led by Dr. Dusty Richardson a neurosurgeon at Billings Clinic in Billings, Montana. The masks are 3-D-printable and purportedly a highly effective filtration mask that can be fitted to the health provider’s face and sanitized between uses.
Using two 3-D printers, Cochran said he and Smith are currently producing two to three masks each, per day because the process takes about five hours for each mask.
The Montana Mask consists of three parts, the face mask--the piece that covers the face-- the filter frame and the filter. “When you 3-D print from a 3-D printer you get a plastic molding and this molding has a removable piece where you can put the actual (filter), if you cut a piece of your N-95 mask, you can put that in as a filter,” Cochran said.
He said you can replace the filter in the mask with part of a N-95 or surgical mask or some type of FDA-approved material as a filter, but retain the molded piece for reuse after cleaning. "You take that piece of N-95 or surgical mask out and you throw that away, but you can clean the one that we made and then put another piece of that same mask in. So, basically it will allow you to use one mask several times whereas they are having to throw those masks away daily."
The Montana Mask is designed so that a single surgical mask can be used several times by piecing the material. “So, you could possibly use a N-95 like six days instead of using it just one time,” Cochran said.
The first batch of masks are set to go to the Delta Health Center clinics that service several locations across the Delta.
He said other FIRST Robotics teams across the nation were already engaged in making the masks and they shared the information with the local team at Gentry. “We just decided to get on board with it,” said Cochran, "It wasn't mandatory, it was just a suggested thing that teams could do to help out."
The other members of the Montana Mask creation team are Dr. Spencer Zaugg, DMD, who received his surgical technology certificate from Salt Lake Community College and worked at the University of Utah Hospital assisting in surgical procedures, and Colton Zaugg who was born in Utah and raised in Montana. He spent two years in Guatemala serving the people there, graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and has a passion for designing, building and experimenting.
The website, makethemasks.com establishes the trio’s only reason for creating the masks was a desire to help. The Montana Mask design is open-sourced and permanently free to anyone who wants to use it.
The website advises that although the mask has not been approved by the FDA or National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health or any other state or federal regulatory body, it has been rigorously tested to make sure it serves the medical professionals.
