Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPRs) are professional respirators that offer additional key advantages (1). The PAPR is tightly fitted and worn similarly as a helmet with a clear shield covering the face, providing respiratory, head, face, eye, and hearing protection. The helmet form factor allows healthcare workers to bypass a fitting test, and the components can be disinfected and reused. This battery-powered device allows for positive airflow through a filter/cartridge, which filters out 99.97% of particles with a diameter of 0.3 um. They are more comfortable and provide better filtering efficiency that N95s.
With the PAPRs in high demand from healthcare workers due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the United States is running low on supply Our team has developed over six functional prototypes and are currently narrowing down to a final design that offers excellent protection against splashes and particulates, hosefree simplicity, light weight, all day comfort, simple to donn and doff, at least 6 hours of battery life, compatible with common disinfectants, and
the final step is to work with medical device manufacturers to obtain NIOSH approval and FDA clearance and manufacture PAPRs to ensure they function as intended and are not contaminated (2, 3).
Status: Prototype
PAPR machine team
Bioengineering, Dentistry, UCLA
Jacob Schmidt, PhD
Bioengineering, UCLA
Quincy Zlotnick
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCLA
Claire Hsu, PhD
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCLA
Veronica Santos, PhD
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCLA
Mark Roden, PhD
UCLA Bioengineering Alumni
Guido Faas, PhD
UCLA Neurology
Cyrus Shokoohi, AS
Bioengineering, UCLA
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