Pflugerville company 3D prints reusable masks for the state

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas - A Pflugerville business is using 3D-printing technology to not only make masks but also make them reusable.

Right now they're providing these masks to the state as the fight against COVID-19 continues.

“We were like many businesses, trying to make adaptive plans but it didn’t really cross our minds to become directly involved,” said Blake Teipel. CEO of Essentium. “The state’s getting 3.8 million masks from us so the way we put the masks together we put them in a kit so each mask has a 2 month supply of mask media."

The mask's frame is made from a nylon material that is printed into shape. The design is done in such a way you can replace the filters in the mask, that way you can wash the frame.

“It’s especially well suited for folks in the community whether that’s the national guard or we’ve supplied some to the police department here in Pflugerville and other first responders who maybe need to interact and change the filter for their next interaction,” said Teipel.

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For the most part, they’ve been supplying these masks to first responders and businesses. “We wanted to provide a way to clean and sanitize the actual mask while disposing the filtration media and putting a fresh filter media on,” said Teipel.

Teipel hopes this reusable method will also benefit the environment. “If we reduce the amount of material discarded then we can help the environmental concerns as well as keep people safe,” said Teipel.

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