MIT, Ex-Apple Engineers Show How Surgical Masks Become More Safe With Just 3 Rubber Bands

As the US struggles with a steep rise in the active number of Coronavirus patients, there is a shortage of personal protective equipment for those working on the front line.?

An example for this would be masks effective against COVID-19. Now a team comprising of ex-Apple and MIT mechanical engineers has come up with a novel way to meet the limited supply, by using only three rubber bands and a surgical mask.

DIY Surgical Mask Brace (Image: Fix the Mask)

The team wants to use commonly found surgical masks as N95 masks, which are effective against Coronavirus. It explains that the filtration efficiency of surgical masks at 0.1 microns is ≥95%. The challenge, however, is to seal them to the face tightly. Hence the name, Fix the Mask.

To do this, the team uses three rubber bands to make a brace for the mask. The team claims that the Surgical Mask Brace significantly increases the efficiency of surgical masks against COVID-19. Here is a DIY video of how to make such a mask yourself at home.

It is basically a chain of three rubber bands wherein two on the edges go over the wearer’s either ears and the one at the centre sits on top of the surgical mask. The rubber band is able to create a considerably tighter seal on the mask than before and hence improves its efficiency.

The DIY method allows us to use surgical masks for protection against Coronavirus during a shortage of N95 masks. As they are “faster to manufacture and more readily available,” this design can be easily implemented to use an abundant resource in the fight against Coronavirus.

In an FAQ page on its website, Fix the Mask team mentions that the design has “passed the qualitative leakage test as recommended by the CDC. However, it has not yet been qualified via the CDC test method outlined in 42 CFR 84. We are partnering with hospitals and national laboratories to get quantitative testing done as soon as possible.”

DIY Surgical Mask Brace (Image: Fix the Mask)

Teams like these are constantly coming up with new ways of creating direly needed medical equipment during the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic. A team of researchers recently came up with a way to produce masks from a commonly found material in hospitals -?a sterile wrapping that houses surgical instrument trays. Usually thrown away after a single use, these wrappings can be easily used to make masks much more efficient than N95. Read all about this research here.?

Back in India, Mahindra’s engineering team has come up with a low cost ventilator that it will soon start manufacturing in the country. Read all about it here.