OSM-20 Face Mask: Prototype with integrated UVC/Ozone cavities to kill germs, bacteria and viruses as you breath in a lite-weight and portable configuration.

Introduction
In approximately Q4 of the year 2019, a virus began spreading and largely swept across the planet by Q1-Q2 of the year 2020. It became known as the COVID-19 virus, part of a grouping of Corona viruses, with symptoms for most people similar to the cold/flu. This particular strain received unprecedented world-wide attention and implimentation of new protocols like restricting the movement of both sick and healthy people, "social distancing", as well as personal protection recommendations such as washing hands, wearing face masks and other items to cover the nose and mouth.

It was at that point I began looking at a variety of unassisted breathing face masks for personal protection like the "N95", "N99", "N100", "P99", "P100" [link, link]. At the time I was not particularly interested in anything similar to a space suit because, well, I'm neither an astronaut nor am I in space. In deciphering those mask types I found that the "N95" face mask is capable of filtering up to 95% of particulates down to .3 microns [link]; a "N99" face mask is usually able to filter 99% of particulates down to .3 microns. Following that, I decided to find out what the size of viruses were. During my research I found that viruses are much smaller than germs and bacteria making them quite difficult to trap because of their tiny size - currently known to be anywhere from .005 microns to .3 microns - they are so small that an electron microscope is typically used to "see" them); a "corona virus" itself is approximately .14 microns in size [link]. Given that .14 microns is smaller than .3 microns I concluded that attempting to trap such a small virus was akin to throwing a handful of marbles at a chain-link fence...odds are some of the marbles would make it through the chain-link fence barrier. Aside from that I wondered if a virus could be smaller than .005 microns, and, if we had discovered the smallest possible virus. I don't know - and that got me thinking about how to neutralize particulates, even smaller than .005 microns, that are so tiny that they could not all be trapped with unassisted breathing face masks in the marketplace today. And that is where I began to think that maybe a different approach to the common face mask may be needed. Granted, I could lumber around in something like a space suit but, really, who wants to do that here at home?

As research continued it was discovered that there are a variety of products that utilize UVC and Ozone to neutralize germs, bacteria and viruses. Although a side note, UVC light is considerably smaller than .005 microns and Ozone (O3 - 3 Oxygen atoms bound together) is also considerably smaller. However, the majority of UVC / Ozone items I could find were huge in size or quite expensive.

Nobody seemed to have a unassisted breathing face mask with UVC / Ozone neutralization built-in to it.

Purpose of the OSM-20
The OSM-20 stands for "Open Source Mask 2020". Given the global magnitude and speed of the spread of a virus (and not wanting to resort to wearing a space suit to achieve 100% effectiveness), I made the choice to openly share my work with an experimental face mask I've been designing that integrates UVC light and Ozone with everyone that is interested in creating an unassisted breathing face mask which may neutralize even the smallest viruses, that is not much larger than a conventional face mask...for virtually everyone. In openly sharing my experimental face mask work, it's my hope that the OSM-20 will rapidly evolve, with everyone's brainpower, into something usable by most people around the planet. As of the time of creating this page, I consider the OSM-20 prototype to still be in the early prototyping "alpha" phase of development and further testing needs to be completed. For example, I've completed runtime testing and some UVC isolation testing but other testing and refinement remains as a work in progress.

Mechanics of the OSM-20
In simplest terms, the OSM-20 is a portable and lite-weight face mask framework designed to cover the mouth and nose, providing two sections within which air flows through for natural inhaling and exhaling. It is through those sections that electronics are intended to be integrated with which to affect particulates in those sections. This allows air to be affected when air is pulled into the mask from the outside environment, and also effected when air is pushed out of the mask into the outside environment. Secondary filters are present on those two sections as well as the junction area where the two sections are inserted into. The secondary filters are meant to contain a mesh screen, filter material like activated charcoal, or other material that contributes to purifying air.

Download OSM-20 3D Drawings
Feel free to download the 3D Drawings of the OSM-20 below. You can freely use / change the 3D Drawings to evolve with your own innovation and electronics. You'll need a 3D printer capable of using STL OR GCODE files to print out the mask components.

[Download STL zip file] STL Format
[Download GCODE zip file] GCODE Format
[Download 3DM zip file] 3DM (Original architectural drawings)

PROTOTYPED: Assembling the OSM-20 with separate, publically available UVC / Ozone neutralization components
The experimental face mask that I've been working on, involved placing (and some re-wiring) miniaturized UVC and Ozone generating electronics designed to sanitize surfaces for germs, bateria and viruses. Miniaturized vapor arc lamps were used because of the small size, low power input requirements, availability and price. Equivalent UVC LED's were also considered but, honestly, the price point to output power along with very limited manufacturing and lack of market availability resulted in no further consideration. The selected arc lamps (in my measurements) require a high voltage source and through their use, generate Ozone; in my measurements of the low power input transformer I found that these particular lamps operated at approximately 162 volts @ 35Khz. The Ozone (aside from UVC emission of the lamp) is very effective at neutralizing germs, bacteria and viruses (viruses, unlike germs and bacteria cannot replicate on their own and are usually fragments of DNA/RNA and achieve replication by invading cells of another living organism). Anyway, back to solving the Ozone byproduct of using the arc lamps. When three Oxygen atoms (ozone) are bound together a -2 net ion charge (gaining two "negative" electrons - from normally 8 to 10) [link] but when only two Oxygen atoms are bound together (O2 - air) it is a neutral charge. One of several ways to break Ozone down would be to introduce two Hydrogen atoms (+1 positive orientation) and deal with water as a byproduct (perhaps by capturing Hydrogen atoms via electrolysis of water) but that would require additional power and electronics. A Beryllium atom - or Magnesium for that matter (+2 positive orientation) may be better but I have no idea what the byproduct of that would be off-hand...or the budget to find out. However, using Hydrogen and a supporting system may be more feasible in a larger apparatus.

In my particular mask prototype, instead what I've done is utilize activated carbon filters (carbon can have a positive or negative orientation) with an outer silver mesh. Historically, activated carbon is quite effective at neutralizing ozone by itself but because the carbon's state changes from the process, that means the filters have to be replaced periodically. Still, it is much cheaper and does not introduce much in terms of weight or busting budgets.

In the assembly notes below, click an image to see an enlarged view if needed. With that said, let me show you how (1) the OSM-20 is assembled from the component parts, (2) integration several publically available UVC / Ozone sanitizers into the OSM-20. As I mentioned earlier, I've not yet finished all testing relating to this particular variant since I'm still working on it.

PARTS LIST	Parts that were used for this particular OSM-20 Prototype included: [link] .999 Fine Silver Micro-Mesh Sheet, Fine Mesh 100101 [link] 1 x 24 Inches Hook and Loop Reusable Fastening Cable Tie Down Straps [link] TruSens Air Purifier Replacement Carbon Filter [link] Energizer Alkaline A544 6 Volt Battery (or equivalent 28A / 4LR44) [link] 6 Pin DPDT Self-Locking Power Micro Push Button Switches [link] UV Light Mini Sanitizer (Handheld wand contains the vapor arc bulb) Miscellaneous wire and wire solder
	During this step I dis-assembled the items containing the miniaturized lamps, keeping the lamp wired to the small control circuit. Once extracted, two jumpers needed to be soldered to bypass specific components on the board (their location may vary so some knowledge of electronics may be needed to identify and test them). The two jumped components were the power switch and a motion switch.
	There are two breather frames that are part of the OSM-20. Over the next few steps I show how to assemble the lamps and airflow guide that will go into each breather. In this step set one of the lamps face down (so you do not see the lamp) on the table, then the airflow guide and then another lamp (face up so you see the lamp).
	Glue the airflow guide onto the lamp that is facing up.
	Glue the lamp (that if facing down) onto the airflow guide. This creates a air cavity where the lamps are facing each other with a gap between them.
	Place the assembly into the breather. There are some "dowels" that are part of the OSM-20. These "dowels" will need to be trimmed somewhat and then glued to the inside of the breather so that the small circuit board is separated from the lamp assembly and prevent the small circuit board from moving freely around.
	Glue and insert the positive and negative terminals into the 6 volt battery case so the positives are on one side and negatives are on the opposite side (so the batteries will be in parallel). Then wire and solder the positives together and separately the negatives.
	Clip out the three filter cap meshes using the silver mesh. After they have been trimmed you should be able to insert the mesh into the end of each filter frame and glue them in place.
	Clip out filters for each filter from the activated charcoal filter. Several were clipped out for each filter frame and then inserted into those frames.
	Glue the nose plate to the mask frame as well as the cheek plates.
	For each breather, set it next to each side of the mask. Align the back end of the breather next to the mask approximately where the red line is located. Then, toward the front end of the breather align the U bar so that it aligns with the front edge of the mask (see red line for reference) and glue it in place. Be sure to use enough glue as to form a seal on both sides of the assembly in the breather so that, when the breather is glued to the side of the mask, air from inside the breather will have to go through the assembly (where the lamps are) to get to the front end of the mask.
	Glue each breather to the mask.
	Glue each breather plate to the end of each breather.
	Glue the front shroud to the front of the mask; it should slip around the protruding breathers.
	Wire up the battery case, switch, and wiring from the assembly (that was placed in the breathers). Then position and glue the battery case to the mask as well as the switch container.
	Add foam strip to the inner portion of the mask (as to form a air tight seal between the face and the mask). Insert the large rectangular filter into the hole in the front of the mask; you will need to create a custom seal around the edge of the rectangular hole so that it is air tight; unfortunately I had no printer capability to print a flexible gasket seal.
	Slide on the smaller rectangular filter onto the end of the left breather.
	Slide on the smaller rectangular filter onto the end of the right breather.
	Assembled front view of the OSM-20.
	Assembled side view of the OSM-20 with the assembly inside of the left breather running. Note: the light grey colored cubed foam block visible below the mask is not part of the mask. A fully assembled OSM-20 face mask has the approximate dimensions (inches as L x W x H): 8.5 x 7 x 4.75. Fairly compact and lite with all plastic construction.

A Future Revision?
I've already got some ideas for future variants that I may experiment with to include sound resonance chambers (to essentially vibrate particulates apart) and adjusting the breathers so that the assembly they hold could be "hot swapped" or popped in and out for other types of assemblies honed for specific particulate environments. I've also been wondering if I could reduce the complexity of sanitizing air by using nothing more than an electro-static cavity to destroy / vaporize those tiny particulates...similar to how a bug zapper works. But, more on that once I get to that point.

Desire to achieve balance is rarely tuned to the domain it is realized within, thereby recasting it into atypical substance.