Concept
Common face mask designs leave room for big improvements to make mask use safer, easier, and more enjoyable.
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The design minimizes the covered facial area for reduced skin temperature and humidity, increased comfort, and better visibility of facial expressions.
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The mask does not press onto nose and mouth, does not slide down when you're talking, and does not fog up glasses.
It frees the ears from mask anchor duty, makes it much faster and easier to get the mask on and off, and prevents mask hook interference with glasses, earrings, or headphones.
The design fits tight and can be manufactured with different fabric/filter materials from droplet catcher to N95+.
It is designed for durability and optimized for cost-efficient mass production to allow for economical pricing.
Why not a clear mask insert?
There are several reasons:
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Clear mask inserts reduce the area that's available for air exchange, making it harder to breathe.
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They fog up. Yes, even with anti-fog coating.
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Clear masks make the wearer's voice less intelligible. They provide visual cues to people with hearing loss, but at the same time destroy the important high-frequency sound cues.
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And remember that masks are meant to prevent the spread of droplets? These droplets land on the mouth cover. On clear mouth covers, that looks exactly as you would imagine.
Versatililty
+ Performance
The filter inserts on our NARDO clip frame are interchangeable, so the mask can be optimized for different activites.
The photo on the right shows a prototype of the SPUXX NARDO with a 365 insert.
365
The all-round insert for NARDO is the 365; designed for safety, all-day comfort, durability and great looks.
SUPERCHARGER
Development of the SUPERCHARGER insert started when we experienced first hand that with conventional face masks it is virtually impossible to get anywhere near your usual sports performance levels.
​SUPERCHARGER has a 9-10 times larger filter surface area than conventional face masks, combined with airflow optimizing filter materials, minimized dead space, and a geometry that further optimizes airflow and protection. This allows for totally new levels of athletic performance with face masks and is also ideal for manual labor, wildfire areas, farm workers...
LINGO
LINGO is an acoustically optimized mask solution for everybody that has a lot to say: Lectors, Police, social workers, Presidents... It uses specific materials and geometry that minimize acoustic attenuation. That is the reduction of sound levels, particularly at higher frequencies, that make you harder to understand when you wear a mask. Not only for people with hearing loss.
LINGO allows for best speech intelligibility and volume. For effortless lectures, meetings, and conversations.
MONOBLOC
MONOBLOC is the one-piece version of our NARDO mask concept, combining the inherent advantages of the design with ultimate robustness and a lower price point. It has a molded-in 365 type filter and is even cheaper to produce than the more versatile NARDO with its interchangeable inserts.
The Tech
On Oct. 30, 2020 we celebrated our 100th R&D mask frame. For this component alone we have tested 9 iterations in 7 different materials on many different faces with very different shapes.
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Now it's perfect.
Magnetic straps
NARDO and MONOBLOC both have one tubular elastic strap on each side. The ends of the straps contain small cylindrical magnets. When the diametrically magnetized magnets come into close proximity, they attach with their elastics-covered side surfaces and hold the mask securely. This makes masking up extremely fast and easy.
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To take the mask off, just pull on the straps and the magnets let go. The effective strap length is adjusted with common sliders.
This demo with one of our earliest frames shows how much faster and easier the masks can be put on and taken off with our strap system.
Slip free
Most face masks slip down when the user talks. That's why we have become used to people in interviews constantly re-adjusting their masks. Especially good looking ones that sit close around the chin. Our design uses two soft elastic straps to pull back the fabric below the frame just enough to gently hug your chin. This allows the fabric to easily slide back and forth when you're talking, but it does not pull the mask down. This concept is slip free and more comfortable than common masks. It also ensures that the mask does not touch your lips.
This is an early prototype. Even at this stage, the mask didn't slip. And the current versions are even better.
Durability testing
Every aspect of our designs gets tested for safety and durability. Here it's the tensile strength of the straps and welded connections.
The measured tensile strength of 5.9kg = 58N is in the range of 45-80N that we had aimed for.
This test was done ten times, with results between 58N and 74N. 58N is at least 20 times more force than what you would normally pull on a mask strap. So it's really solid.
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To prevent any potential risk of injury if the straps get stuck somewhere, we would not want a much higher value.
