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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Toward Mass Customization Through Additive

Manufacturing: An Automated Design Pipeline for

Respiratory Protective Equipment Validated Against

205 Faces

Shiya Li , Yongxuan Tan , Samuel Willis , Mohanad Bahshwan , Joseph Folkes ,
1
1
1
2,3
1
Livia Kalossaka , Usman Waheed , Connor Myant *
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1
1
1 Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 1AL, United Kingdom
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 1AL, United Kingdom
3 Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Abstract: Respiratory protective equipment (RPE) is traditionally designed through anthropometric sizing to enable mass
production. However, this can lead to long-standing problems of low-compliance, severe skin trauma, and higher fit test
failure rates among certain demographic groups, particularly females and non-white ethnic groups. Additive manufacturing
could be a viable solution to produce custom-fitted RPE, but the manual design process is time-consuming, cost-prohibitive
and unscalable for mass customization. This paper proposes an automated design pipeline which generates the computer-aided
design models of custom-fit RPE from unprocessed three-dimensional (3D) facial scans. The pipeline successfully processed
197 of 205 facial scans with <2 min/scan. The average and maximum geometric error of the mask were 0.62 mm and 2.03 mm,
respectively. No statistically significant differences in mask fit were found between male and female, Asian and White, White
and Others, Healthy and Overweight, Overweight and Obese, Middle age, and Senior groups.
Keywords: Respiratory Protective Equipment; Design Automation; Mass Customization; Additive Manufacturing; 3D
Graphics

*Correspondence to: Connor Myant, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 1AL, United Kingdom;
connor.myant@imperial.ac.uk
Received: July 15, 2021; Accepted: August, 2021; Published Online: October 13, 2021

Citation: Li S, Tan Y, Willis S, et al., 2021, Toward Mass Customization Through Additive Manufacturing: An Automated Design Pipeline for
Respiratory Protective Equipment Validated Against 205 Faces. Int J Bioprint, 7(4):417. http://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v7i4.417

1. Introduction world’s attention to RPE’s long-standing but often
neglected problem of poor fit and its associated issues
Respiratory protective equipment (RPE) is routinely such as device-related pressure ulcers. High incidence
mandated across a wide range of industries to protect (97%) of skin damage over the nasal bridge and cheeks
millions of workers worldwide from inhaling harmful among frontline health-care personnel wearing standard-
airborne particles, gases or vapors that are present in sized RPE has been reported as a serious occupational
the environment. Some examples of respirator masks hazard . These skin damages are likely caused by
[1]
are disposable N95/FFP3 used in the healthcare sector, excessive strap pressure applied on poorly fitted masks to
or re-usable elastomeric half-mask RPE commonly used improve seal at the skin/mask interface . Excessive strap
[2]
in construction, mining, firefighting, and manufacturing. pressure can result in user discomfort, which is often cited
The performance of RPE depends on three factors: (i) as a major factor for non-compliance . Thus, improving
[3]
compliance, (ii) comfort, and (iii) effective seal. The fit will improve the effectiveness of RPE across all three
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought the success factors.

© 2021 Li, et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting distribution and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is cited.
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