Researchers develop open source personal respirator for healthcare workers fighting Covid-19

A team at the University of Southampton, led by professors Paul Elkington and Hywel Morgan, have developed an innovative device to provide protection for healthcare workers in the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is really important to minimise the risk of infection for medical staff and stop them getting sick at the peak of the pandemic, so that they can care for others”, explains Professor Elkington.

The device they’ve developed is called PeRSo (Personal Respirator Southampton) and it consists of a fabric hood that covers the head and has a plastic visor to protect the face. Attached to the hood there is a small portable unit, worn with a belt around the waist, that contains a battery-powered fan which delivers clean air through a filter. Because the fan is away from the wearer’s head the device is very quiet and it is lightweight, making it comfortable to be worn continuously for 8 to 9 hours.

So it can be manufactures quickly, most of the components were made from readily available materials or using simple manufacturing methods like 3D printing and laser cutting. Moreover, the design for the prototype is published as an open source specification, making it widely available to manufactures all over the world. To make sure the device is affordable, the team is working on a second version, the PeRSo-DW (Developing World), that will provide open source modifications for components available in low resource countries.

The prototype has gone through various phases of improvements and has undergone functional testing by frontline medical staff in hospitals with great success. The team behind PeRSo was awarded with a President’s Special Award for Pandemic Service from the Royal Academy of Engineering, for exceptional engineering achievements in tackling Covid-19 throughout the UK.

Adapted from: https://www.miragenews.com/president-s-special-award-from-royal-academy-...

More information: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/publicpolicy/support-for-policymakers/poli...

https://youtu.be/LOwVs8aDxgw; https://youtu.be/5nFy1W00uAo