HelloFace | NHS P3 Respirator

Transparent Respirator for Dental Professionals.

Helloface approached us to develop a new P3 respirator to improve the user experience for NHS dental practitioners and patients. To improve upon products currently in use, the final product provides superior protection to both practitioner and patient through the filtrated exhalation pathway. By creating a transparent design, communication is greatly improved, especially between patients with hearing impairments.

Solution(s)

➔

Transparent facemask that improves patient - practitioner communication.

➔

Filtered exhalation pathway to provide greater protection to patients from bacteria and viruses.

➔

Profiled facemask body to enable the wearing of dental loupes during use.

Design services

Regulatory compliance and CE certification

Industrial Design

Computer aided design (CAD)

Rapid prototyping and product testing

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA)

Regulatory compliance testing

Supplier sourcing and auditing

01 | Design Research + Market Strategy

Defining the Specification

After speaking with NHS dentists, we discovered several key requirements including the need for the design to accommodate the wearing of dental loupes during use. Once we had developed a sufficient understanding of the user and environmental context, we combined these needs with the regulatory framework to form the basis of the product specification.

02 | Industrial Design + Product Development

A Transparent Respirator Concept

To improve patient practitioner communication and the overall patient experience during dental procedures, a transparent contemporary design was employed to differentiate the product from similar, more intrusive designs.

Care was taken to map out the product lifecycle stages, with a view to implement waste reduction strategies and enable re-use where possible.

03 | Design Engineering + Prototyping

Development of a Functional, Proven Prototype

Anthropometric CAD data was sourced to guide the development of the respirator design and ensure that the overall form would provide an air-tight seal to the face.

Through several stages of prototyping, each component and assembly was tested against the specification to inform design improvements and define the final mask configuration. In conjunction with the University of Hertfordshire, the final proof of concept prototypes were pre-verified against the specification requirements to prove the design before proceeding to the procurement of manufacturing tooling.

End-to-end product development

Delivering the Product to Market

The final product provides superior protection to both practitioner and patient through the filtrated exhalation pathway. By creating a transparent design, communication is greatly improved, especially between patients with hearing impairments.