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RAYMOND – ��«Ӱҵ’s innovative Fab Lab is helping to make personal protective equipment, or PPEs, become safer and more comfortable in the fight to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Wesley Smith, director of nursing for nurse practitioners at University of Mississippi Medical Center, wears a surgical mask fitted with a tension band for comfort and convenience. (��«Ӱҵ/April Garon)

With the help of the latest in 3-D printing technology, the college is supplying tension release bands for surgical masks currently being used by doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers to treat patients stricken by COVID-19, caused by the virus. All healthcare workers, whether they are directly treating coronavirus patients or not, are now wearing the masks.

The roughly four-inch-long bands fit will hold the elastic strips of the surgical mask that usually go over the user’s ears. Such prolonged use can produce skin irritation, much like tight-fitting frames on eyeglasses. The strips will then provide comfort to healthcare workers who are wearing surgical masks all day. Also, they can prevent the user from having to touch the mask to adjust or remove it.

“The amount of time a nurse or doctor wears these masks has increased significantly,” said David Hollis, Robotics and AI Lab Tech Specialist at ��«Ӱҵ. “The elastic strips have a tendency to cut into the skin.”

Hollis and Drafting Technology instructor and Fab Lab director Phil Cockrell produced the first 250 of the bands inside the lab on the Raymond Campus for a unit at University of Mississippi Medical Center, with more requests expected once other facilities learn about them.

��«Ӱҵ is among a number of entities around the world printing the bands and other protective equipment for health organizations. The cost to print the bands was about 58 cents apiece, Cockrell said, though college is donating the bands to UMMC at no cost.

A 3D printer produces a set of surgical mask tension release bands at the Fab Lab at ��«Ӱҵ Raymond Campus. (��«Ӱҵ/Tammi Bowles)

The base technology for producing them was obtained from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Sciences National Institutes of Health 3D Print Exchange. Inside the lab, headed fibers of polylactic acid were fed through one of several 3D printers on hand to make the bands, all according to a set of instructions fed into a computer.

“The small fibers look like weed eater cord going into the machine,” Hollis said. “Our Prusa printers have done all the heavy lifting for the job.”

The Fab Lab is outfitted with 3-D printing machines, laser cutters and related equipment of varying sizes capable of etching designs or cutting flat sheet material such as acrylic or metal. The lab is financed through the Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI) grant, which has also made funding the printing of the mask release bands possible.

Wesley Smith, left, director of nursing for nurse practitioners at University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Sherri Smith, a respiratory therapist at the hospital, demonstrate how a tension release band works on surgical masks in use by medical personnel. (��«Ӱҵ/April Garon)

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  Surgical mask tension release bands lay on a table at the Fab Lab at ��«Ӱҵ Raymond Campus. (��«Ӱҵ/Tammi Bowles)

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  A row of Prusa 3D printers produces surgical mask tension release bands given to UMMC April 10. (��«Ӱҵ/Tammi Bowles)

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  A Prusa 3D printer prints a set of surgical mask tension release bands given to UMMC April 10. (��«Ӱҵ/Tammi Bowles)

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  David Hollis, Robotics and AI Lab Tech Specialist at ��«Ӱҵ, adjusts the mechanical arm on a 3D printer inside the Fab Lab. The printer is among six which produced 250 surgical mask release tension bands and given to UMMC on April 10. (��«Ӱҵ/Tammi Bowles)

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  Wesley Smith, director of nursing for nurse practitioners at University of Mississippi Medical Center, views a row of 3D printers April 10 while picking up 250 surgical mask tension release bands ��«Ӱҵ donated to the hospital. (��«Ӱҵ/April Garon)

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  Phil Cockrell, left, director of the Fab Lab at the Raymond Campus, and Wesley Smith, director of nursing for nurse practitioners at University of Mississippi Medical Center, show the surgical mask tension bands created by 3D printing technology in the Fab Lab. Smith picked up the bands April 10. (��«Ӱҵ/April Garon)