Colorado, USA
Colorado-based Air99 LLC introduces the innovative Airgami® Respirator that passed NIOSH N95 pre-certification tests and offers immediate relief because of its comfort and best-in-class breathability based on its origami design and advanced electrostatic filtration.
The design has been awarded a 2021 Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Richard is an experienced engineer and entrepreneur. He understood that a mask that doesn’t fit, doesn’t filter air, even if the filter is N95 grade. From wearing one daily for weeks, he knew that masks fogged his glasses, the nose wires cut into his skin and left painful sores, they were unattractive, got stinky, couldn’t be cleaned or disinfected, and created lots of waste. Most people he saw around town wore ill-fitted surgical and cloth masks that didn’t protect them against inhaling PM2.5.
Getting to the Airgami design was, and continues to be a challenge, taking hundreds of prototypes, independent lab testing, field testing, and in-house testing to get to this point.
Today, Airgami is patented and in production. Independent test results show that it protects against infected aerosols and droplets, wildfire smoke, air pollution, dust, and pollen, and can be reused and heat disinfected. Breathability, comfort, and style are best-in-class.
- High Filtration Efficiency ⎼ Passes NIOSH N95 pre-certification tests performed by Nelson Laboratories and independently corroborated by contamination expert Aaron Collins. Nelson Laboratories measured filtration efficiency at 98.3% or better for 0.26 μm-diameter particles, and inhalation and exhalation breathing resistances at 4.0 and 4.3 mm-H2O or better, respectively, measured at 85 L/minute.
- Breathable ⎼ Origami tessellations increase its filter surface area by 2x to 4x compared to conventional masks, giving it best-in-class breathability.
- No Exhale Valves ⎼ Better aerosol source control.
- Cooler to Wear ⎼ The larger filter and superior airflow keep it cool. Infrared video shows how nearly the entire surface passes filtered air during breathing without leakage at the edges.
- Speech Intelligibility ⎼ The thin, semi-rigid origami structure acts like a loud-speaker diaphragm to better transmit sound. The side bellows enable a larger range of jaw movement, resulting in excellent speech intelligibility.
- Prevents Mask Collapse ⎼ Holds its shape and stays on the nose. Does not collapse during inhale.
- Reusable: rinses in clean water, heat disinfectable
Project: Airgami N95-Grade Respirator
Designers: Air99 LLC
Manufacturer: Air99 LLC
