Developing Better Personal Protective Equipment

Our goal is to develop open plans for a highly effective and low cost Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR) so that every person on the front lines of an airborne virus pandemic has the protection they need to work safely.

We are volunteer engineers committed to developing open source virus protection technology that will help improve the safety of healthcare workers on the front lines of fighting current and future airborne virus pandemics. To achieve this as rapidly as possible we use readily available and high quality components (e.g. blower, battery, headgear, HEPA filter) and have designed the rest to be easily mass produced (face shield, visor, drape) while maintaining high functional performance.

Open Source

All of our work and designs are freely available with a permissive open source license
(CCO 1.0)

Collaboration

These designs will improve more rapidly through collaboration. This includes but is not limited to engineers, scientists, manufacturers, and healthcare workers.

Open Web Conferences

Starting in March 2021 we will be holding quarterly web conferences to review the current PVP designs and make further plans. We will post information on how to join these events here.

PVP-P Technical Design Documents

Each of the components below has a technical document that provides technical background and explains the work performed to. develop the component solution. Clicking on the center image will provide all of the current technical documents in one PDF document.

Mask Illustrations
specs and preformance
System Specifications and Performance

The PVP-P designs were developed to achieve specific goals. This document describes the overall goals and the performance we have achieved so far.

specs and preformance
Blower, Gauge, and Diffuser

A blower must reliably produce >= 6 CFM of air flow within a full PAPR, operate with minimal noise, have low power consumption and be light weight. We tested several commercial blowers to arrive at a good solution as described in this technical document.

specs and preformance
Filter

We selected filters from commercially available HEPA filters, which provide 99.95% protection for particles >= 3um in diameter. Here we walk through this selection process.

specs and preformance
POWER AND CONTROL BOX

We selected a high quality and rugged commercial battery pack and designed a power unit capable of delivering a range of voltages (6 to 12 V) to the blower.

specs and preformance
Face Shield, Visor, and Drape

We designed a full head face shield that can be vacuum formed at low cost and fit with hardhat suspension headgear. A low cost and easy to mass produce disposable 4 mil plastic drape reduces the amount of cleaning needed between uses. The face shield was designed to be mass produced using thermoformed polycarbonate, fitted with a separate polycarbonate visor, and capable of attaching a plastic drape to fully protect the head and neck.

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