Open Standard Respirator Collaboration
Rapid Prototyping for open source N95 design
UMass ADDFab is rapidly printing prototype parts and prototype molds for the Open Standard Respirator project in collaboration with Cofab Design in Holyoke, MA
The Open Standard Respirator is an open-source filtering face piece respirator designed to increase the available supply of N95s for Covid19 and beyond. This respirator is designed to meet all official standards for N95 filtration and be inexpensive to produce with traditional manufacturing equipment in large quantities. The first model is currently in prototype production for field testing and clinical evaluations. Cofab Design, in Holyoke, MA, is a major partner in the global development team launching the respirator into production.
During the development process, the Cofab team needed a rapid prototyping facility that could turn around parts in hours and days, rather than weeks. Having worked together in the past, they came to ADDFab and were able to quickly turn around high quality parts in both laser sintered nylon and UV-cured polymers. Parts were delivered as soon as they came off the printer, sometimes in multiple deliveries to speed up the process.
One of the critical parts that ADDFab has printed is the mold tooling for the silicone face piece. Before committing to (expensive) metal tooling, the designers at Cofab were able to print accurate molds at ADDFab, pour their own silicone material, and test a molded prototype, all within a few days. By locally 3D printing the molds and testing them quickly, they could be much more confident in their design when beginning to manufacture at scale.
ADDFab is also supporting their intial production run of units for field testing and clinical evaluation. Many of the parts that will ultimately be injection-molded are being printed at ADDFab before investing in the expensive tooling for mass producing these products.
Continue following the project as it develops at https://openstandardrespirator.org/
Rigid components were printed at ADDFab. Initial production run for field testing and clinical evaluations. Bagged white parts were printed at ADDFab. Multi-part mold for the silicone face piece.
The Team
David Follette - Director of Advanced Digital and Design Fabrication, UMass Core Facilities
Asmit Jain, Staff Engineer, Advanced Digital Design & Fabrication, UMass Core Facilities
Will Day, Student Staff, Advanced Digital Design & Fabrication, UMass Core Facilities
Aaron Cantrell, Jake Horsey, Mike Stone, Cofab Design, Holyoke, MA
In the News
May 12, 2020
