Haze respirator – V.1

“To construct the world’s cheapest haze respirator – four things are required. (1) The housing. (2) Fan (3) Battery and (4) filter – and of course, (5) the housing to put everything in

The nose and mouth piece and tubing to me is a non issue – just use the standard clear silicone that all hospitals use – it’s an off the shelve item in most hospital pharmacies. Remember the goal is to keep the cost low, not to win a good design award.

With the nose and mouth piece sorted out – this will virtually eliminates all the current problems faced by users of the N-95 mask (straining, hot, difficult to put on correctly etc etc) – as since the nose and mouth piece gets air fan in – it’s always positive pressure in your nose and mouth piece – that means since only clean air is streamed in – it’s much more forgiving on user error.

The Housing has to be a cylinder – I highly recommend PVC pipes. The general design should be divided into three main segments along the cylinder. (1) Intake guard – this is a wire mesh that is supposed to protect fingers and objects from falling into the intake fan and filter (2) Filter compartment which is where the filter sits snugly (filter part I will discuss later). We have not decided whether it is better to slot or screw in the filter in like a light bulb – (3) this is the pressurized air compartment which is connect to a valve that fits into the tubing to supply mildly pressurized air to the user via the mouth and nose piece.

Now as you go into this project – you will of course come across a few niggling questions like – how do I create an intake guard? You might want to consider a pipe cowling.

Or how do I go about creating the various segments in the cylinder? For your prototype, you may like to consider working with high compression foam – these are materials that you usually find in day care centers where kids jump around in. Cut the various segments and fit them in to form the various divisions in your cylinder.

No need to use a lithium oin like in this pic. This is just to illustrate how compressed foam can be used to hold a battery and create internal walls within the cylinder. You may also like to play around with clear perplex.

Tip: Battery needs to be durable and long lasting. Like so.

Fan keep it simple. Very simple with some electrical conversion to 12 V.

Nose and mouth piece – keep it simple again. Need to modify a one way flap – where air goes out from the mask ONLY!

You may also like to visit this site for further inspiration.

http://www.google.com/patents/US7481221

Make it and give it to your loved ones. I was not here. We never had this conversation. Good luck and see you on the otherside.

DUE TO MEASURED RESPONSE – CERTAIN SEGMENTS HAVE BEEN DELETED AND NO YOUTUBE VIDEO IS AVAILABLE IN SINGAPORE DUE TO THE RECENT PASSING OF THE WORLD’S MOST REPRESSIVE CENSORSHIP LAWS.