Covid-19 ICU Aerosol-Box : 8 Steps

This instructable creates a ICU patient hood for protecting medical personnel from aerosolized virus emitted from infected patients. This simple to create hood will reduce aerosolized virus and create a more safe environment. This is a rather crude but effective device. It is constructed using very easy to obtain materials. This is a photo of a commercial version of the device. This instructable will provide a design to create an easy to produce hood.

This project is the brainchild of Chuck Tung, who is a member of a group of us designing a easy to manufacture ventilator to help during this crisis. He and our other team member Joseph Siegel have been working tirelessly on the ventilator design - one of our advisory doctors asked if we could duplicate hoods for use in his hospital ICU and Chuck ran off and created the design and prototype in around 14 milliseconds.

Supplies

90 Quart Clear Storage Container, Acrylic Sheet Stock, Dremel Cutting Bit or equiv

Step 1: Gather Together Your Materials and Tools

Obtain a 90 Quart container, acrylic sheet stock, dremel cutting bit, and (IMPORTANT!) eye protection!

Step 2: Mark Location of Arm Holes

Obtain a circular form of some kind (jar, bottle cap, small saucer, etc. This should be approx. 5 inches in diameter. Using a Sharpie or similar marker, draw the outline of the two arm holes. View the images to see if you want to center these holes along the long side or if you want these somewhat closer to the 'head' end of the hood. These will form the outlines you will use to cut the armholes in the next step.

Step 3: Cut Arm Holes

Use Dremel high speed cutter to cut out the arm holes. THIS STEP WILL CAUSE SMALL SPECKS OF MOLTEN PLASTIC TO FLY THROUGH THE AIR WITH GREAT VELOCITY - WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!!

Step 4: Tape Up the Arm Holes

Using clear packing tape, cover the sharp edges of the hole you just cut. You probably don't want to use duct tape as this will be far more difficult to disinfect and wipe down. See the image for one idea on how to accomplish this. Feel free to come up with something more tidy than our quick tape job. You can see here how being careful while cutting the arm hole will pay off by providing a cleaner opening.

Step 5: Mark and Cut Out a Rectangle for the Clear Acrylic Window

Using a straightedge and a Sharpie, mark a rectangle that is 1.5 to 2.5 inches from the outer walls of the container. This will be a cutout that you will be using as a window hole that we will affix an acrylic window to in a future step. After marking this rectangle cut it out using the Dremel tool and high speed cutter. Use eyewear!

Step 6: Mark and Cut the Acrylic Sheet to Fit the Window Opening

Measure the hole you cut in the bottom of the container in the last step. Using dimensions 1.5 to 2 inches larger in both the height and width direction, mark your piece of acrylic for cutting.. Using a bandsaw or other method, cut the acrylic sheet to size. If you don't have a band saw, you can try to sandwich the plastic sheet between two pieces of 1/2" mdf and rip along the cut lines with a circular saw - go slow if you use this method and try to clamp the mdf together for a clean cut of the acrylic. Be patient and careful as this is sometimes tricky...

Step 7: Tape on the Acrylic Window

Place the window you just cut on the bottom of the container leaving a balanced overlap in x and y. Tape the window in place using packers tape. Pat yourself on the back because you have completed the build!