International Nurses Day: How Swansea University helped an ICU nurse bring her bespoke transparent face mask to market

May 12, 2021

A nurse from Morriston Hospital in Swansea, who designed a custom-fit face mask following her experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, is celebrating reaching the final stages of production – thanks to a partnership with Swansea University.

Valerie Bednar, along with husband Dr Gareth Smith, teamed up with our researchers, from the Faculty of Science and Engineering, to bring her unique design to market.

Valerie Bednar, Director at MyMaskFit, comments:

“When the coronavirus pandemic hit, readily available FFP3 masks became paramount for adequate protection of the healthcare staff in the clinical environment.

I have been a nurse for over 10 years, working predominantly in critical care in both the USA and here in the UK.  In both countries, I have never fit any of the traditional disposable N95 or FFP3 masks available at the hospitals, but instead was provided alternative protection.

The idea for our company, MyMaskFit, came about because of the awareness of supply chain issues for FFP3 masks and the varying success rates of fit testing with those masks. We developed the concept of scanning people’s faces to provide them with a custom-fit solution for their respiratory PPE needs. Further investigation into clinical benefits highlighted the need for transparency to support enhanced communication and, with the help of ASTUTE Senior Project Officers, we were able to redesign the mask to allow for transparency.

Due to the pandemic, this is a time critical project and we needed to get it to market quickly.”

Creating a custom-fit

The research team, supported by IMPACT, developed an innovative digital platform to transform the way supply chains operate within the manufacturing industry.  The Made Smarter Marketplace allows suppliers to register their products and services to become part of an approved network.  Users can experience more transparency in the supply chain process with improved response times and accurately priced goods/service – providing reassurance on quality, cost and certainty.

Transparent custom-fit design

Valerie Bednar continues:

“Access to the Made Smarter Marketplace has allowed us to explore viable suppliers of various parts of the masks during the prototyping stage prior to the initial commercial production. As we progress to the second commercial production, we expect to be able to rapidly source and select suppliers who will have capacity to provide the volumes we need at a price we can afford. The ability to upload our CAD design as demonstrated recently, is a powerful feature of the Made Smarter Marketplace. It streamlines the quotation process, allowing suppliers of parts to respond to our request for quotations quickly and in a collaborative manner, compared to more traditional methods of lengthy searching on the Internet or phoning companies up looking for individual solutions.

Thanks to our partnership with Swansea University, we are now at the final stages of testing and our first commercial batch of 200 masks will be produced in a matter of weeks.”

Project lead Professor Johann Sienz, Deputy Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and IMPACT Director, comments:

“MyMaskFit has been working with IMPACT on manufacturing, testing and bringing to market custom-fit face masks.  The company were the first to trial the Made Smarter Marketplace and we are delighted to see they are now in the final stages of firming up on production.

It is evident that, through better connected manufacturers and suppliers, companies can begin to see products brought to market at a quicker and more efficient rate.

Through working with MyMaskFit, we have successfully demonstrated how our platform can bring rapid success to SMEs.  We now have an effective industry-wide digital marketplace model that can be replicated and applied to other markets.”

New digital manufacturing supply chain – Made Smarter Marketplace
Providing access to a more open & dynamic market and increased opportunity for UK SMEs
Providing more efficiency & flexibility – creating a rise in productivity & competitiveness

The research team developing the marketplace is led by Swansea University and includes expertise from the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and WMG University of Warwick with industry partners Autodesk, Tech2B, Plyable, Carapace, PXL ICE, Cadarn and AI Idea Factory.

BBC Interview

Watch the BBC interview with Valerie Bednar, Professor Johann Sienz and Paul Perera (Co-Director at MyMaskFit) following the launch of the project in November 2020.

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