Varia 3D
Face mask choir
On-demand manufacturing service provider Varia 3D is using its 3D printing capacity to support a new business delivering face masks designed to enable choirs and music classes to continue during the pandemic.
The Vocal Mask was founded by music teacher David Angerman who had recognised standard, off the shelf face masks would not give his pupils ample flexibility and comfort to perform. Angerman worked alongside colleagues and engineers to create a CAD model of the Vocal Mask before reaching out to Varia 3D in the summer.
From here Varia 3D began printing prototypes in a range of thicknesses and sizes in a PA12 nylon material, before realising it was too rigid for the design. The Vocal Mask is made up of a flexible frame and attached with a ‘special and reusable fabric.’ While the PA12 material was not compatible, a copolyester based elastomer developed by Evonik with the Structured Polymers production process it acquired last year was. The material is called Flexosint 65 and offers a Shore D harndess of 46 (Shore A 95), maintains elongation values of 300% and is available in white and black variants.
Varia 3D
Face mask choir
After first looking into the viability of injection moulding, Varia 3D and The Vocal Mask decided to proceed with 3D printing as the production tool, enabling them to manufacture on-demand. Already, the company has sold masks to individuals, churches, universities and public and private schools.
“Varia 3D made a convincing argument that with 3D printing we would reduce our time to market and allow us to make changes based on early customer feedback,” Angerman commented. “Based on our prototyping costs, I was not sure we could get our price point low enough. We needed to order an initial 1,000 units to get started with moulding.”
“With Evonik’s copolyester material, we were able to check all the boxes for The Vocal Mask production," added Varia 3D founder Brian Bauman. "David needed the mask frame to be economically produced in a natural black flexible material with high compression and tear strength. We were able to meet this need, eliminating risky tooling costs when launching a new product.”
