“Certified surgical masks were much more available but lacked the good seal that an N95 respirator provides,” Duponsel says. “I reasoned that if we can create that good seal by using something like a ...

WATCH: A Concordia PhD student has designed a 3D-printed frame she says makes surgical masks more effective. In some cases they can even be used as an alternate to N-95 masks. Global’s Elizabeth ...

Rice researchers 3D-printed these heads, fitted them with N95s and their own surgical mask hacks, and hooked them up to a particle measurement machine—called a Portacount —they acquired off eBay.

Hyo-Jick Choi, a biomedical engineer at the Universtiy of Alberta, left, is working on Monday, March 9, 2020, to create a mask that will kill viruses within 30 minutes of contact. Ilaria Rubino ...

Workers at Novo Textiles in Coquitlam, B.C., making surgical masks. The company is now planning to make up to five million respirator masks alongside 15 million surgical masks annually.

Though N95-like masks cost more than surgical ones, experts say they can be used for up to around 40 hours, which is much longer than indicated on the packaging, as long as they stay in good shape.

A box of surgical masks at Novo Textiles Co. in Coquitlam, B.C. (Ben Nelms/CBC) "We may end up being the first to do N95 masks in Canada if we can get this deal done," said Zanatta.

Particles passing through a mask are stopped when they physically touch one of those fibers. N95s, KN95s, and surgical masks are purpose-built to be effective at removing particles from the air.

Today, the small U.S. mask manufacturers are in dire straits, if they haven’t gone out of business already. DemeTech has laid off nearly all the employees it hired to make masks, and it has shut ...