Team develops emergency mask for hospital ventilators

Christian Fracassi and Alessandro Romano are a team of young Italian engineers that work for a company that specializes in 3D printing. During the Covid-19 pandemic they started printing ventilator valves for hospitas that were running out of that equipment. During that process, they were contacted by Dr. Renato Favero, former head physician of the Gardone Valtrompia Hospital, how shared with them another ideia: the construction of an emergency ventilator mask, designed by adjusting a snorkeling mask already available on the market.

They studied the proposal along with the doctor and the manufacturers of the snorknelling mask. Alterations were made to the mask and a new component was designed to connect the masks to the ventilators. They called this new component the Charlotte valve. They assembled the first prototype and took it to the hospital to test its efficacy.

“The prototype as a whole has been tested on one of our colleagues directly inside the Chiari Hospital, connected to the ventilator body, and has proven to be correctly working. The hospital itself was enthusiastic about the idea and decided to test the device on a patient in need. The testing was successful.”

The files to print the Charlotte valve and instruction to assemble the masks are available at the company’s website. The team patented the design of the valve in order do prevent speculation on the price of the component and they assure that their initiative “is totally non-profit, we will not obtain any royalties on the idea of the link, nor on the sales of masks”.

However, the team calls attention to the fact that “the idea is designed for healthcare facilities and wants to help in realization of an emergency mask in the case of a full-blown difficult situation, where is not possible to in find official healthcare supplies. Neither the mask nor the link are certified and their use is subject to a situation of mandatory need.“

More information and Instructions: https://www.isinnova.it/easy-covid19-eng/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Csqdxkrfw