ONE SIZE HURTS ALL Kaz Bison
Minor Makers Lab: Making as Research 2020 University of Applied Sciences Coach: Yuri Westplat Teachers: Loes Bogers, Micky van Zeijl and Sam Edens
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Introduction Healthcare providers have an essential role in times of Covid-19. They care for the Covid-19 patients and are therefore more likely to be infected by the virus than others. The surgical facemasks they use in the hospital have a universal size. The facemask will not suit everyone well, so that healthcare providers are not sufficiently protected as they deserve to be. By developing facemask straps, I try to contribute to a better protection against Covid-19 and making them more comfortable to wear.
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Table of Contents The larger context 6 Summary of project and outcomes 7 Main reframing moments 9 How to make the strap 10 Imagery 14 Selection from Trail of Evidence 21 Resources 27
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The larger context This project addresses the problem of the surgical face mask used in healthcare facilities. Because extensive use of surgical face masks, which is especially common during this period, causes healthcare providers to suffer from the elastics behind their ears. It has long been known that the elastics cause an uncomfortable fit, but nowadays it is a much discussed topic. Many designers are coming up with solutions to solve this problem. Designers are developing straps to attach to the elastics, so the elastics don’t touch the ears anymore.
The ear straps, of Somaya and Cees, being cut out of PET-G plate with a lasercutter. Image: Hogeschool van Amsterdam
Man wearing a facemask incorrectly. Image: The New York Times
In addition to the loss of comfort after wearing the face mask extensively, there is also the problem that there is only one face mask size. One universal size ofcourse doesn’t fit everyone neatly. The purpose of the facemask is to filter the air that you inhale. So that the air you breath in doesn’t contain Covid-19 droplets. If the connection, between your face and the mask, isn’t great there will be gaps. When you inhale, air will try to find the least resistive path to get into your body. Therefore if you’ve got gaps some of the air you breath in will be unfiltered air. So there’s the chance of breathing in air containing Covid-19 droplets. 6
Somaya Ben Allouch (lector at Digital Life Centre) and Cees Boschman (Coordinator of the Makerslab at Hogeschool van Amsterdam) developed straps as you can see in the picture above. On the internet appear a lot of straps created out of a similar shape to that of Somaya and Cees. I was curious if there could be a better shape, which creates a better fit and a better comfort (and cleanable to be able to reuse the straps).
Summary of project and outcomes Personal motivation to start the project I chose this topic because I like doing things different than everyone else. I get motivated by doing things that really make a difference. At the beginning of the project I didn’t really know where to aim. It started with wanting to do research to find a need for a tool I could make during this project. But quickly after I started I got in touch with Somaya Ben Allouch. Somaya produced face mask straps for OLVG Oost and Cordaan together with Cees Boschman. Besides this project being a nice oppertunity to contribute in this strange period, the time progressed and the amount of people who got infected increased as with every virus. So as the time progressed interns at my girlfriends internship got infected too. She’s doing an internship at a hospital, studying to become a nurse.
Results from testing What I thought would go better of in my tests was the ease of use. It was difficult for the testers to clamp the elastics in the splits. I tested it with a few people, including (intern) healthcare providers.
The the round edges close to the splits are too subtle, because of that the round edges don’t guide the elastics as well into the splits as I thought it would do. This causes it to go wrong a few times before it gets into the splits. And during a number of attempts, the elastics of the face masks also broke.
Description of the concrete outcomes Starting with this project, with the insights of Somaya and Cees, I decided to make a strap that is easy to clean, more comforable, creates a better fit and is easy to use. Extensive use isn’t only having wear a facemask for a long time, but it can also be that you often put on and take off a facemask. For that reason it is nice if a strap is easy to use. In addition, this also fits well with my study Communication and Multimedia Design. If I had more time, I would have paid more attention to large-scale production. For the delivery of these straps to healthcare institutions, it is interesting that it can be produced quickly, for example.
Facemask when elastics are adjusted. Image: Kaz Bison
In addition, it is not obvious that people adjust it. Apparently it does not really suggest that you can adjust elastics with the strap. It doesn’t have a good affordance. Ideally, by seeing the strap, someone immediately knows how it works, without any explanation. After explaining and demonstrating it once, the testers succeeded to adjust the elastics with the strap. 7
After the testers had a good idea of how the strap worked and also had the strap of Somaya and Cees on, I was able to compare the two. The bottom line is that the strap of Somaya and Cees is easier to use, but mine creates a better connection and is slightly more comfortable.
Strap when looking upwards. Image: Kaz Bison
Strap when it’s placed more on top of the. Image: Kaz Bison
Still there are oppertunities to create a better design. Like creating a design that’s more on top of the head, to create a better comfort because with my strap some part of the elastic still touch the top of the ear. And when looking upwards the strap feels weird in the neck.
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What was not immediately apparent from the test, but what I do think is that my prototype creates a more personal fit. Because of the possibility to adjust the bottom and top separately. This is possible because the strap is jammed.
Main reframing moments Prioritising There were two things I wanted to research in the beginning. One is to investigate the shape of the strap, because there were still opportunities here (and other options that I did not realize at the time). And the other thing was researching which production technique is well-matched to produce PET-G straps on a large scale. Laura Mudde, my reframing coach, made me aware that I probably did not have enough time to do both. So I chose to focus on the design of the strap. And if I had spare I had the possibily to also think about large-scale production. The straps function At first I was only focussed on designing a new shape with the intention to come up with a better design then the designs I saw on the internet.
But after a bit of feedback and spending more time designing these straps the focus also became upon creating a better fit. So nurses are better protected against the corona virus. Sold out materials I was at a point where I wanted to make my prototype from material that met my requirements. First I worked with thin and strong cardboard. It met some of the requirements, but was more as a use for quick prototyping before I had my hands on PET-G. I wanted to see where I could buy PET-G, but it wasn’t as easy as I expected it to be. In many places this was sold out, delivery took too long, or the plates weren’t the right thickness. In the end, I was able to buy a PET-G sheet with a thickness of 0.5 mm from a store called Vlieger, in Amsterdam. Now I could continue developing prototypes with a material that meets the requirements. This was at the time that the number of Covid-19 infections still were increasing by large numbers. Now it’s available in a lot of webshops again. It does leave some interesting questions about plastic. Why are transparant plastics so popular during this pandemic? What does this say about the use of plastic by humans? If I had more time I would’ve liked to do more research about bioplastics and if I could make a bioplastic that met the requirements for the strap.
Screenshots of a small collection of same designs only aesthetically different 9
How to make the strap Tools • Pencil • Compass • Fine liner (I used the smallest fineliner I have which is size 0.05) • Geo triangle (To make sure the everything is nicely straight) • Cutting mat/board • Scissors • Ruler (Preferably made of metal to cut nice straight lines with the knife) • Stanley knife (to cut the design out of the plate) Material PET-G (0,5 mm thick) Leave space
Leave space
Tip: Do not draw directly on the PET-G plate itself. The PET-G remains nicer if you remove the protective film after cutting out the shape by hand. I first drew the shape on a piece of paper and then taped it on the protective foil. But you can also draw it directly on the protective film.
6 cm
1. Measure the space between the ears 2. Draw these lines with a pencil amd compass I made my strap 15 cm wide in total, but you can also make it as wide as your own measurements.
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2,5 cm
1 cm
[YOUR MEASUREMENT - 2 cm]
1 cm
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3. Cutting the shape out of the PET-G plate What I find the easiest is to first cut the straight lines with a stanley knife. And guiding the knife with a metal rular. 1 cm
4 cm
6 cm
1 cm 1 cm
[YOUR MEASUREMENT - 2 cm] And than cut out the round parts with a pair of scissors.
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1 cm
Remove the protective film The strap is now finished and you can test it. Slide the facemask wires in the splits in the direction the arrows point towards. Thats how you lock the adjustments to wear the facemask correctly according to your personal fit.
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Imagery
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14,4 g Glycerine 400 ml Water 80 ml Blue Spirulina (I ordered the wrong kind) 96 g Gelatine 32 g Sugar (+ wax, to make it water resistant)
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Selection from Trail of Evidence
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Resources Online info about the straps Somaya Ben Allouch and Cees Boschman produced https://www.parool.nl/amsterdam/hva-levert-oorriempjes-voormondkapjes-in-de-zorg~b3bf9cca/ https://www.hvana.nl/lees/28322/medewerkers-zorg-kunnen-mondkapjesnu-verstellen-dankzij-lectoraat-digital-life How to (not) wear a face mask How NOT to Wear a Mask: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/well/live/ coronavirus-face-mask-mistakes.html Information about why it’s so important to wear the facemask correctly. Why it should fit snugly and the importants of not having gaps: https:// www.today.com/style/how-wear-face-mask-correctly-common-mistakesavoid-t178177 Inspiration Link to my Pinterest board, where I saved mechanisms and already existing straps in which I saw potential for a new strap design: https:// nl.pinterest.com/kazbison/strap/ The design from 3DFanatics that led me to a shape that created a better connection to the face: https://www.instructables.com/id/SURGICAL-FACEMASK-PRESSURE-POINT-REDUCER/
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