CINCINNATI — Graduate students at the University of Cincinnati (UC) are using their skills to create masks that fit everyone exactly right using 3D printers.

What You Need To Know

  • UC grad students came up with the idea to create custom face masks with 3D printers

  • A developing app will be able to scan your face to get exact measurements for the mask

  • The masks can be printed at any 3D printer

  • Each mask can be taken apart easily for easy cleaning

​​Not all masks are created equal. And a lot of the time, they don’t even keep you 100% protected.

“The normal surgical masks are not fit for everyone," UC student John Zhang said. "So if you can see my face, and this mask, the nose area, the cheekbone area and the jaw area, they actually have the big leaking area.”

That's why several graduate students at the UC are working to create masks that are custom fit to each person’s face, made with 3D printers.

“On the side of the printer is a material spool," Zhang said. "And it will feed the material to the hot end and it will melt the material and deposit the material onto the plate, layer by layer.”

The 3D printers will create each piece needed to make the custom mask. And the custom fit is thanks to a developing app that will scan your face.

“So this is the contour of where my mask fits me and with that we design a mask," student Shriya Patil said.

Each mask is a perfect fit, each time.

“I’m talking so my mask may slip down," Patil said. "That’s not happening and if I laugh, it’s not like there is air leaking around my face.”

And while the students work to complete the app, the hope is for anyone, anywhere, to be able to scan their face and get it printed at any 3D printer.

“It’s made by you," Patil said. "Made for you, and only for you.”