Respirator with check-valves

thingiverse

# Disclaimer # Let's get down to business. This is not a medical-grade respirator. In other words: DO NOT USE THIS AS A REAL PROTECTION PERIOD. Basic hobbyist 3D printers are still a work in progress, and the technology isn't perfect. Even with proper calibration, printed parts may have microscopic holes. And this mask might not fit your face perfectly or seal all the way around, so just keep that in mind, please. We all want our summer back, traveling, and open pubs, but another pandemic won't help us out. # Let me introduce... the Mask! Hello everyone. I'd like to share with you my little project - a respirator with two intake filters and a slightly larger exhaust filter. I made it during March when I was stuck at home due to lockdown, and there were no respirators available anywhere in the country. Plus, I wanted to improve my Blender skills (more on that later). There are membranes inside that partially prevent air from going back into the intake while exhaling and from the outtake while inhaling. It should help keep these filters clean and dry for longer periods of use and protect you and your surroundings by keeping unwanted particles in the filters instead of blasting them around with force. # Why Blender FFS? I know there are many CAD tools, but when I started, I used a model of a respirator that had the skin-touching part properly modeled. It would be painful to create it from scratch, so I started with their model - Credit for that goes to the Brno University of Technology in Czech Republic (available at www.vutbr.cz/mask). Their model was in .stl format and surely modeled in CAD as it had extremely complex topology, so I had to retopologize it. This predestined the program used to finish the job as Blender has just the right tools for this job. I have to say, the BUT model was simple to create and highly functional, but it had its own shortcomings. Therefore, I decided to create my own model with integrated buckles, check valves, and some other perks. It would be certainly more useful to work in CAD software, but I never liked the parametric approach, and Blender gave me more freedom. Just to make it clear, the only part that has a similar resemblance to the BUT mask is the skin-touching edge, and even that has been edited. The rest is fully invented and designed by me, so I am not presenting someone else's work as my own. # To the print machine! I have made sure all parts are printable with the highest quality possible. You will need to print all parts, ideally one by one, which will take you a whole day with PETG, but it ensures the highest quality and minimizes the risk of errors. ### Short how-to: 1. Print all parts. 2. Clear and smooth out all parts, focusing on places where they fit together. 3. Assemble filters. Pictures of parts order for both filters are included and should make it clear. 4. Put rubber bands on filters, slide them inside the mask, and fix them in position with nuts. 5. Put a filtering material of your choice on Filter beds and secure them in place with Caps. HEPA Filters work great, they're easy to breathe through. 6. Tie buckles together, and you are ready to go. You will know that valves work by hearing a clicking sound with every inhale/exhale. I hope someone will enjoy my creation as much as I enjoyed creating it. I do actually even use it, so it's not like it would be completely useless. It's definitely better than some basic respirators made from cloth, and at least for me, it's also an interesting gadget. So let me know what you think about it and post your makes!