Page 12 - Engineering Penn State Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Features
[MASC case study #1]
Addressing the widespread shortage of face masks
With its infrastructure and and mission in in place a a a a a a a a a a a a a major priority for for MASC was to meet the urgent demand for for personal protective equipment (PPE) Along with many health care facilities across the nation increased supplies of protective masks
such as as as N95s were needed at at at Penn State Health to limit the spread of COVID-19 In response MASC contributors from the the College
College
of of Engineering and and the the College
College
of of Medicine have collaborated to to design and and develop novel 3D-printed mask prototypes A A few weeks after MASC’s inception a a a a a a a a group of physicians gathered at at at Penn State Health Milton S S S Hershey Medical Center and were presented with several mask designs
to test Participating faculty members in in in in in the the College
of Engineering attending the the session virtually received direct feedback on on fit size and comfort “It has been exciting to speak with engineers who can think outside of of clinical constraints and and current practices ” said Dr Neerav Goyal an an an associate professor and and otolaryngology surgeon at at Hershey Medical Center “It also allows us to to to bounce ideas off of of experts in in manufacturing and and prototype very quickly and and effectively ” Simpson added “This was a a a a a a a a a great example of the energy and and and commitment we we all have to to to this effort Engineers and and and physicians were willing to to to come together and and and finalize a a a a a a a a design ” While the the initial prototypes were 3D printed to to to scale manufacturing manufacturing to to to meet the the current demand several traditional manufacturing manufacturing companies with existing U S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) compliance were recruited to create the shell With all the components in place Simpson said production will be able to to create thousands of masks
per day to to meet demand n n COLLABORATION: Physicians at the Milton S Hershey Medical Center met virtually on on April 7 with faculty members in in in in the College
of Engineering Photo credit: Jason Plotkin
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ENGINEERING PENN STATE
PRODUCTION: A A computer aided design (CAD) model of the the the plastic injection molding tooling was created to to scale the the the production of the the filtration mask