New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Concept category

Identify the award category for which this concept is being submitted
Shaping a circular industrial ecosystem and supporting life-cycle thinking

Email user
taddeo.osculati@mail.polimi.it

Basic information

Concept title
The Pump System

Full Concept Title
The Pump System - negative pressure face respirators adaptive fit

Please provide a short, catchy description of your concept to be used in communication towards the public
Face traits and facial characterization can be affected by many aspects such as ethnicity, gender, age and different physiognomies, thus affecting negatively the selection of a mask and the search of a “custom fit” by the users.
The project aims to equip current face-masks design with an adaptive fit: the concept consists in an inflatable harness element capable of compensating facial differencies between users by providing a custom, comfortable and safe seal every time of use.

What was the geographical scope of your concept?
Cross-border/international

Where was your concept implemented?
Location 1
Italy

Location 2
Spain

Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries
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If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Italy - Lombardy/Piedmont
Spain - Catalunya

Does your concept address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly urban

Does your concept refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)

Has your concept benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your concept won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As an individual

Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
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In case my concept is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my concept in the channels of the European Commission
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
NEB Newsletter

Description of the concept
Please provide a summary of your concept.
Respiratory protective face-masks are widely employed in industrial fields to protect worker during working activity. The face-piece provides protection against repeated exposure to contaminants by sealing respiratory tracts from surrounding working enviroment and filtering the air by forcing it through filter units; the mask is usally worn for hours during the course of the activity. To meet the demand of dierent size-shaders, mask manufacturer are providing dierent size ranges to cover user requests and market needs. Face traits and facial characterization can be aected by many aspects such as ethnicity, gender, age and different physiognomies, thus affecting negatively the selection of a mask and the search of a “custom fit” by the users. Under this circumstances, critical aspects related to mask use and practices emerged during in-field research: first of all the inability of the system to adapt to severe facial differences and the discomfort caused by wearing the mask for multiple hours during working activitIes. The project aims to equip current face-masks design with an adaptive fi t : the concept consists in an inflatable harness element capable of compensating facial dierencies between users by providing a custom, comfortable and safe seal every time of use.
The concept has been developed, tested and evaluated according to project key-drivers and resulted in an improved user-experience. The PUMP system provides an unique solution among multiple (and dierent) users, thus by improving workers safety and comfort during activity

Please indicate the main themes of your concept with 5 key words.
HEALTH

Please indicate the main themes of your concept with key words
SAFETY

Please indicate the main themes of your concept with key words
CUSTOM-FIT

Please indicate the main themes of your concept with key words
INNOVATIVE

Please indicate the main themes of your concept with key words
USER-CENTRED

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept in terms of sustainability and how these have been met. Please highlight how the concept can be exemplary in this context.
The concept aims to reduce the footprint and prime-resources consumption of common negative-pressure face respirator, thus by improving the experience.
In order to improve sustainability in the design of this concept a lot of efforts and attention were put into mono-material manufacturing (for the different components and the main body). The different concepts were always developed keeping this topic in mind and refining a manufacturing process that could bring this alive (overmolding of Silicone over Silicone or TPE over TPE).
The project also aims to reduce/remove the common distinction between sizes (S/L/M) by providing a unique solution for every user; this could reduce the complexity of manufacturing, costs and energy save for mold production and manufacturing, saving the production of unuseful garments.
During the last phases I am also trying to entirly switch to a more sustainable option for the material (such as thermoplastic elastomers and rubbers), in this way the product could gain a new life at the end of the life-cycle.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the concept can be exemplary in this context.
The concept aims to improve significally user-experience when using/wearing the mask.
Workers operating under respiratory face-traits hazard are required to wear rthe mask from 5 to 8 hrs in a day, for this reason comfort and fitting of the mask are crucial to improve their experience while working.
This concept provides the best saftey possible by improving the comfort of wear, ensuring a customize fit every time of use for every different user.
The interaction between user and product has been carefully designed and tested many times. Interaction between The Pump system and the user is still under development with some testers in order to obtain the best match between daily use/gestures and design.
The Pump System is the first negative pressure face-mask to provide a custom and safe seal every time of use in ease.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the concept can be exemplary in this context.
As stated before, INCLUSION is at the core of this concept since it was initially designed with the exact scope of "adapting to everyone" and compensate for differences in face traits. The differences can be caused by age, gender, ethnicity, hair style nad many other factors. People with beard or long hairs might be affected negatively during the selection of a PPE or considered as "non suitable for a job" because of this reason.
The Pump System aims to solve this issues and to guarantee safety and comfort for EVERY user.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the concept and civil society have been / will be involved in the concept and what has been / will be the impact of this involvement on the concept.
Given the context of last years, the Covid-pandemic taught us the importance of correctly protecting our respiratory traits from hazardous substances (when needed).
Shielding external contaminants is even more important in certain jobs or critical situations (weling, painting.. etc) and, in general, quality of air and pollution is raising year after year in the big cities.
In this scenario it becomes crcuial knowing the risks we are exposed at and having a safe way to protect from this dangerous situation.
Tailor-made PPE are far from beeing reality, the Pump System could provide a valid and real solution to this worlwide problem.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and development of the concept. Please highlight what the added value of their engagement was
During the development of this project and for further stages this were the main contributors:

- me, as the designer and inventor of the concept (italian designer - engineer - maker)
- workers (mainly italian painters, welders and workers in the asbestos field) providing feedback and detailed description of their routin
- BLS srl (italian respiratory protective products manufacturer) for providing general documentation and info about face mask industry and filters
- designers (from my univeristy PoliMi and from other universities) for helping with the brainstorming and adding hints/suggestions
- BLS Iberia (BLS spanish spin-off) for providing in depth knowledge about material and processes used for mask manufacturing
- University PoliMi (the teaching staff) by providing general notions
- my Maker Lab where i had chance to experiment and work on first prototypes

Please explain which disciplines and / or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and development of your concept. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
I got inspired by many different fields for the development of the concept, in specific:
SPORT and SPORTSWEAR (Reebok Pump) TECH (soft robots) FASHION and LUXURY (mask design) ENGINEERING and MANUFACTURING (mold making and manufacturing process) CHEMISTRY and PHISICS (material selection, compatibility and process test).
The development of the concept has very interesting roots, the insipration came from very different areas (such as sportswear, automation and tech and science) and were combined at best to replicate the function observed while simplifying the interaction as possible. Many prototypes were fabricated to test and match what was "viryually" possible.

Please explain the innovative character of your concept when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the concept.
The Pump System consists in a very disruptive concept for tis category (respiratory negative-pressure face mask).
The first difference is a inflatable sealing harness capable of compensating differencies in face traits, in this way (rather than deforming a rubber lip under tension) sealing of face-traits can be performed with a very simple gesture and without effort or pain from the user. This also allows to a much better use and wear on long term conditions and reduces the need of sizes to meet the user need (a unique size rather than S-L-M face-maks bodies).

Please which elements of your concept could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts. This may involve, for example, aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings, etc.
The idea of an inflatable sealing harness is much effective and could be extended to many other sectors or uses.
The idea of using a soft chamber that deforms under the action of pressure to seal or isolate selected areas represents a key function that could be extended to many other application (for other products with similar functions or directly to new processes when a custom "shape" is needed).
The advantage of using air is you can get the best-matching surface against a body without renouncing at comfort and a pleasent feel.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the concept addresses by providing local solutions
Differences in face traits among worlds different users could be solved or compensated.
The production or manufacturing of face-masks by key players could be drastically reduced (by reducing face-mask available models)
Improved safety over work, better working conditions.
A new standard for custom-made protective garments.

Please attach the development plan of your concept. This plan should detail the plans you have for the further development and implementation of your concept, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application. The plan should also include envisaged results and benefits from the concept for direct and indirect beneficiaries. The results and benefits should be specified in relation to the objectives of the concept, and to what is expected in the context of the respective category

Osculati-Taddeo-Presentation.pdf
Please attach at least one high resolution image or visual representation of your concept to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below
- Osculati-Taddeo-Thesis.pdf
By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed concept has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the concept, initiative, and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary.
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their concepts, concepts, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted concept, concept is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes