The Polymer Research Center, Faculty of Materials Technology, HCMUT – Bach Khoa has corporated with Trung Vuong Hospital to research and design medical equipment to connect with a snorkel mask, facilitating the fight against COVID-19.
Recently, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Huynh Dai Phu – Dean of the Faculty of Materials Technology and postgraduate student Nguyen Thai Hoa collaborated with Dr. Nguyen Thien Binh – Head of Emergency and Resuscitation Department has successfully built the equipment connecting with a 3D printing snorkel mask.
The pandemic of COVID-19 has seriously affected human health. Not only lacking medical masks, antibacterial hand sanitizers, many hospitals also do not acquire enough essential medical equipment. This is an urgent issue in the global medical industry.
For doctors and those who carry out epidemic prevention, medical masks, protective clothing, protective masks, and breathing mask are the first solution to reduce the risk of infection. In addition, patients are also required to wear masks and if their health condition is serious, they need to breathe with the support of non-invasive machines. However, these methods are still likely to lead to a very high risk of cross-contamination.
The Faculty of Material Technology’s research team has created a breathing mask airflow equipment to overcome this situation. The equipment contains 3 parts, designed so that the air inlet tube can be connected to the bacterial filter, the air before entering the mask will be filtered to ensure no cross-contamination. Enough amount of airflow allows doctors to carry the masks for hours. Air exhaled through the one-way valve prevents fogging vision, facilitating operation. This design can also be used as a breathing mask for patients when changing the position of the exhalation valve. The equipment has removed some disadvantages of the normal nose-mouth masks during the pandemic peak.
“To protect the environment, the material used to make this device is the environmentally friendly biodegradable polymers,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Huynh Dai Phu. The success in research and manufacturing equipment connecting with a 3D printing snorkel mask has contributed to the prevention fight against the disease.
At the moment, the research team has provided some products for the Trung Vuong Hospital and continued to invent more equipment for future needs.
