During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyle Jansson and the UWM Prototyping Center team worked around the clock and collaborated with partners in health care, engineering and manufacturing to address the crisis, according to Carrie Wettstein, producer of the Maker Faire Milwaukee.
Jansson, who is the director of the center, and his team worked with RoddyMedical and a network of peer engineers to create respirator masks for clinicians to use.
The masks were created via two different processes. One mask was an injection-molded mass-produced version. The UWM Prototyping Center led the design process, and Waukesha-based Husco, which led the Milwaukee MaskForce consortium of public and private entities in Milwaukee, mass produced the masks.
The other mask was a thermoformable and moldable design, which was conformable to faces and included an off-the-shelf filter that could be made with a 3D printer, a shop vac, and a hair dryer and silicone molding compounds.
Jansson, who comes from a family of “makers,” combined his passion and hands-on fabrication skill sets with advanced prototyping machines to meet a critical need, Wettstein said.
