{"id":6042,"date":"2021-03-14T10:09:07","date_gmt":"2021-03-14T15:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=6042"},"modified":"2021-03-15T10:09:54","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T15:09:54","slug":"cdc-recommends-fitters-like-badger-seal-giving-it-boost","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/cdc-recommends-fitters-like-badger-seal-giving-it-boost\/","title":{"rendered":"CDC recommends fitters like Badger Seal, giving it boost"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
In early fall 2020, College of Engineering student employees assembled Badger Seal mask fitters outside the Grainger Engineering Design Innovation Laboratory in Wendt Commons. RENEE MEILLER, UW\u2013MADISON COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The CDC has officially recommended wearing mask fitters<\/a> as one way to improve how your mask protects you, including the Badger Seal created by a team of UW\u2013Madison engineers in September.<\/p>\n

The Badger Seal team developed a simple and inexpensive do-it-yourself fitter that ensures a tighter mask seal around the wearer\u2019s nose, mouth and face, as masks can leave gaps that could allow virus particles to escape.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
In one version, Badger Seal is an add-on over a mask. It has a single cord around the back of the head and can be worn comfortably for many hours. COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Badger Seal<\/a> mask fitter is a soft, adjustable \u201cframe\u201d with elastic worn either as ear loops or behind the head. With readily available materials, such as elastic cord, foam wire or pipe cleaners, the fitter is easy to make at home in minutes.<\/p>\n

When worn over non-medical-grade disposable masks, the Badger Seal significantly improves the masks\u2019 filtration performance, according to research conducted by Scott Sanders<\/a> and David Rothamer<\/a>, UW\u2013Madison professors of mechanical engineering<\/a> and experts in measuring gases and particles in internal combustion engine processes. The CDC recommendations were based on a study that references that research.<\/p>\n

The idea for the Badger Seal evolved out of Sanders\u2019 research on the efficacy of face masks. In those tests, Sanders used a mannequin wearing various face coverings\u2014a shield, a homemade four-layer tightly knit mask, and a disposable non-medical-grade filtering mask\u2014to demonstrate how tiny particles from a human breath and larger droplets from a sneeze escape from, or are trapped by, each mask. His results, outlined in a new video<\/a>, show each mask\u2019s effectiveness at containing both.<\/p>\n

During his tests, Sanders also taped the edges of the masks to the mannequin\u2019s face\u2014resulting, unsurprisingly, in the best filtration performance. But while a mannequin might not mind a taped mask seal, Sanders knew he needed a practical solution for people who wanted to \u201cup\u201d the performance of their masks.<\/p>\n

He turned to Lennon Rodgers<\/a>, who specializes in engineering design and directs the Grainger Engineering Design Innovation Laboratory, the engineering makerspace<\/a> at UW\u2013Madison. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rodgers pioneered several personal protective equipment, or PPE, solutions now in wide use around the world.<\/p>\n

Sanders and Rodgers conducted an initial web search that yielded a few mask fitter solutions using rubber bands, 3D-prints and more custom designs. None of the designs they found seemed viable for widespread adoption due to their cost, comfort and adjustability.<\/p>\n

Rodgers made a quick online order of a dozen or so different candidate materials, then embarked on an iterative engineering design and prototyping process. As he refined each mask fitter prototype, Sanders and Rothamer tested it until the team arrived at a Badger Seal that is both effective and comfortable to wear.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdding the Badger Seal to a three-ply disposable mask helps contain aerosols and droplets,\u201d says Sanders. \u201cFor wearers, a sign of a tight fit is when the mask material moves in and out with each breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makerspace staff and students have made approximately 2,500 fitters in-house\u2014many of which have been distributed to specific UW\u2013Madison faculty and staff, including overnight employees charged with deep-cleaning some university residence halls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are used in a place where they already would wear a disposable mask,\u201d says Mike Kinderman, director of residence hall facilities in the Division of University Housing. \u201cFrom people on the night shift, the comment is that they do work. It\u2019s like one of those inventions that you look at afterward and think, \u2018Someone figured out a way to hold a mask tighter to your face. Why didn\u2019t I invent this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers says he hopes a company will pick up the Badger Seal design and manufacture it commercially. However, it\u2019s also easy to make at home using the open-source design posted on the Badger Seal website<\/a>. There also is a make-your-own station for members of the UW\u2013Madison community in the makerspace lobby.<\/p>\n

Michael Arnold<\/a>, a UW\u2013Madison professor of materials science and engineering<\/a>, teaches a materials experience course for first-year students. Last semester, their first hands-on activity was to use the how-to video to make a Badger Seal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a perfect opportunity to expose freshmen on their very first day to Wisconsin engineering, and to show them right off the bat how engineers can solve problems to make society a better place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The Badger Seal is a good mask addition for people in many public-facing sectors across the country, Sanders says. He even shared the how-to video with his mom: \u201cShe has some teacher friends who wanted to make the fitters to enhance their masks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arnold has also received positive feedback from his students, many of whom started wearing the Badger Seal regularly. \u201cIf such a simple measure as making and wearing a mask fitter can make masks work better, and at very little cost or hassle to the wearer, then why wouldn\u2019t everyone want to wear one?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

More on masks<\/p>\n