Track: Human Factors and Ergonomics

Abstract

A new variant of the coronavirus known as Covid-19 was declared as a global pandemic virus at the end of 2019. The spread of a virus's outbreak can occur in various ways, such as contact with an infected person through droplets. The nature of the virus, which is easily transmitted between people, will exacerbate the spread of Covid-19. The shortage of mask supplies has happened globally, and the price of the mask became costly. Surgical masks or cloth masks are the minimum personal protective equipment recommended by the authorities to control the spread of diseases in many countries. The surgical masks or cloth masks or even the N95 type of mask still have the vulnerability in an environment with the potential for airborne spread of viruses. The safer and more effective personal protection equipment (PPE) against possible airborne transmission of the virus is the full-face mask equipped with an air filter. Unfortunately, providing the full-face mask during the pandemic, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, was not possible since its complexity and made the price expensive. This study aims to share our design and experiment of a full-face mask as a PPE for mitigating virus transmission. There are three aspects in designing a full-face mask, i.e., ergonomics design, availability of materials, and ease to produce. Anthropometric dimensions of the face are applied in designing product sizes to fit with the user size. The full-face mask design creates two segments of the mask, namely the mouth and nose segment and eye segment. A rapid prototype has been applied to design the mask's mold using 3D printing and resin solid casting. The mask's primary materials must accommodate the two requirements, i.e., easy to get and low-cost material. The required materials to produce a full-face mask are PVC plastic sheet (3mm), rubber seal, and air valve or filter. The vacuum forming production concept is the most applicable to create a mask easy to produce and in a short cycle time. A full-face mask prototyping has been created in our study and offered the alternative of PPE to protect people from virus transmission. Future development of our mask design might be considered the PPE rapidly with a low selling price.