I've read that, for homemade masks, blue shop tools used with cotton can provide a balance of protection, breath-ability, availability, and re-usability. However, I haven't found a good design that uses blue shop towels. In a BusinessInsider article, a garment shop claims they've developed and tested a proprietary design that they will "share with the world" soon, after raising a $200,000 GoFundMe to "donate" masks to nearby hospitals. Yet somehow there are no signs of the free design, and no details on the research that went into their proprietary design.
The WaPo article provides a link to a YouTube video that demonstrates a very basic design that uses a blue shop towel, staples and rubber bands, but that design appears to favor ease of construction while unnecessarily sacrificing fit, effectivness, durability and reusability.
Is anyone aware of a design incorporating blue shop towels with cotton, or any other high-quality design? I'd like to make some for myself and my family. Although I have a handful of disposable masks due to my sensitivity to wildfire smoke, I'd like to have masks my family could wear more regularly, so to achieve this, it seems like I'd want washable, re-usable masks for everyday use.
From the WaPo:
Peter Tsai, the materials scientist who invented the electrostatic charging technology that N95 masks — the highest-quality medical masks on the market — rely on, also believes that homemade masks are an important part of the United States’ battle against the coronavirus. He offered another material for DIY mask makers to consider: nonwoven fabrics.
Nonwoven fabrics, which Tsai did years of research on to improve medical masks, are made of individual fibers or filaments that are bound together mechanically, thermally or chemically. They are not knit or woven together, like most cotton.
Not all nonwoven fabrics are ideal for masks. Wet wipes are made of nonwoven fabric but are too porous, Tsai said. Vacuum bags are also generally made of nonwoven fabric but are not breathable.
Tsai recommended using car shop towels as mask material. The towels, available in rolls and often blue in color, would do a better job of filtering droplets than cloth, he said. The material is “very strong,” he said. “And it can be washed with soap and water and reused.” There are YouTube videos that offer tutorials on using this material.
The towels, he said, could also be used in conjunction with cloth masks, serving as an additional filtering layer. Still, like MacIntyre, he said that cloth is better than nothing. “Any cloth material can help. It is not perfect, but it can stop large droplets from getting out, and from getting in,” he said.
Frustratingly, the WaPo article adds:
Kaiser also has a pattern for a nonwoven mask, but it is not sharing that design publicly with volunteer sewers. “We want to allow people to access what they have at home,” said Jodie Lesh, a senior vice president at Kaiser Permanente who is leading the homemade mask initiative.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle...story.html
Businsess Insider article:
https://www.businessinsider.com/homemade...ter-2020-4
The WaPo article provides a link to a YouTube video that demonstrates a very basic design that uses a blue shop towel, staples and rubber bands, but that design appears to favor ease of construction while unnecessarily sacrificing fit, effectivness, durability and reusability.
Is anyone aware of a design incorporating blue shop towels with cotton, or any other high-quality design? I'd like to make some for myself and my family. Although I have a handful of disposable masks due to my sensitivity to wildfire smoke, I'd like to have masks my family could wear more regularly, so to achieve this, it seems like I'd want washable, re-usable masks for everyday use.
From the WaPo:
Peter Tsai, the materials scientist who invented the electrostatic charging technology that N95 masks — the highest-quality medical masks on the market — rely on, also believes that homemade masks are an important part of the United States’ battle against the coronavirus. He offered another material for DIY mask makers to consider: nonwoven fabrics.
Nonwoven fabrics, which Tsai did years of research on to improve medical masks, are made of individual fibers or filaments that are bound together mechanically, thermally or chemically. They are not knit or woven together, like most cotton.
Not all nonwoven fabrics are ideal for masks. Wet wipes are made of nonwoven fabric but are too porous, Tsai said. Vacuum bags are also generally made of nonwoven fabric but are not breathable.
Tsai recommended using car shop towels as mask material. The towels, available in rolls and often blue in color, would do a better job of filtering droplets than cloth, he said. The material is “very strong,” he said. “And it can be washed with soap and water and reused.” There are YouTube videos that offer tutorials on using this material.
The towels, he said, could also be used in conjunction with cloth masks, serving as an additional filtering layer. Still, like MacIntyre, he said that cloth is better than nothing. “Any cloth material can help. It is not perfect, but it can stop large droplets from getting out, and from getting in,” he said.
Frustratingly, the WaPo article adds:
Kaiser also has a pattern for a nonwoven mask, but it is not sharing that design publicly with volunteer sewers. “We want to allow people to access what they have at home,” said Jodie Lesh, a senior vice president at Kaiser Permanente who is leading the homemade mask initiative.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle...story.html
Businsess Insider article:
https://www.businessinsider.com/homemade...ter-2020-4