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How Our UFP Masks WorkMost masks work in 2 main ways to capture particles:
It is not feasible to mass produce a net fine enough for a face mask which will trap ultrafine particles less than around 300 nanometers in size and still allow air to come through fast enough for you to breathe. Ultrafine particles must be filtered by some other method, and adhesion is the most practical method. There are many different kinds of ultrafine particles, with different properties, so a challenge has been to find a material which will be good at making them all adhere. You may have noticed that when it rains, pollution is cleared. This is because when pollution particles touch rain drops and mist, they get absorbed by the water. Therefore, our mask material is chosen to use moisture from your exhaled breath to coat the fibers, then in turn this moisture traps the ultrafine particles. This is another reason not to use exhale flaps, unlike many other masks. Some flaps use one-way exhale flaps, which open when you breathe out in order to make exhaling easier, but their disadvantages are (1) you inhale some unfiltered air before the flap closes, and some don't seal well anyway, and (2) they add to the cost of the mask. Our masks are designed to make exhaling easy without the use of flaps. To filter ultrafine particles, it is most important that the filter be thick so that the particles must travel a longer distance through the filter. This is because ultrafine particles bounce around a lot more in the air than larger PM 2.5 particles. Heavier particles are not pushed around as easily as lighter particles. Heavier particles tend to travel on a more straight path, whereas lighter particles swirl more with air turbulence. While it is easy to trap PM 2.5 particles using a very thin net, you cannot use a net to trap ultrafine particles so the filter must be thick. As air passes through a thick filter, there is considerable air turbulence within the filter, which on a microscopic scale helps make the ultrafine particles take a roundabout path which increases the probability that each particle will collide with the fiber material and its moisture coating, thereby trapping the particle. Our masks are made for large removable filters to be slid into the front where your breath goes in and out. They can be replaced periodically, the old one either thrown away or washed. Because we are depending on moisture from your exhaled breath to capture the ultrafine particles, disposable filters can be relatively economical. Because we use disposable filters, not disposable masks, we can design the mask itself to be very comfortable and effective in other ways (such as sealing the face). You can just remove the filters and wash the mask with your laundry, and keep 2 more more masks just like you do other clothing. You can even keep different styles of mask. We provide a variety of filters. They are all the same size, though can vary in thickness, depending upon your preferences. For example, in some instances such as visiting a hospital or on an airplane, you may want to use a filter optimized for capturing pathogens. For exercise, you might want a thin filter just for capturing pollen. For driving down and expressway or walking on a city street, you may want thick filters for ultrafine particles.
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