Intelligent personal protection for industrial respirators.

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Mechanical Engineering
Degree name
Master of Engineering
Publisher
University of Canterbury
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
English
Date
2021
Authors
Coleman, James
Abstract

There is a lack of air monitoring systems for industrial respirator head tops. Therefore, an air monitoring system prototype for a respirator head top was created for a company. This air monitoring system is a real-time alarm system that logs the air quality through various sensors. The sensors measure carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and particulate matter for PM10 and PM2.5. The alarm system sounds when any of these sensors read a value above the allowable threshold, which are set by the OSHA Grade D air standard and the World Health Organisation. This data is then sent to a cloud server where the sensor data can be monitored and analysed.

The process for creating this air monitoring system involved component selection based on the criteria given by the company. From here, the hardware was designed and tested for verification of accuracy. With the hardware tested, Amazon Web Services was used as a cloud server to send the sensor data to. The data is sent via Wifi and uses Message Queuing Telemetry Transfer (MQTT) as the messaging protocol.

The prototype was not completed to a stage where a product could be close to creation from it. For this to be done, multiple components will be swapped for ones that are smaller, lighter, and cheaper. With these component changes, the cost will be reduced from $353 to $264 and the weight will be reduced from 132g to 92g. The size for this new version will be 53.1 x 38 x 17.1 mm3 if the PM sensor is separated from it. Another change to the prototype is to create a housing, so it can fit within the respirator head top. Its position will be within the head top at the top with the battery section outside on the back of the head top. The last major change is to change the cloud server from Amazon Web Services to Microsoft Azure.

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Citation
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All Right Reserved