The 58th Session of the '1 Topic 1 Guest' event, organized by Üsküdar University's ÜSGÜMER Occupational Safety, Occupational Health and Environmental Health Application and Research Center, took place. The guest of the program was Engineer Ömer Küçükdurmaz, manager of Medion Arge Sağlık Danışmanlık Ticaret Limited company.
In the online event, Engineer Ömer Küçükdurmaz gave his presentation titled “Helmact Motorized Respiratory Protective Device Development and Production Process”.
“The use of disposable masks and full-face masks can be dangerous”
Engineer Ömer Küçükdurmaz, who spoke about Helmact, the motorized respiratory protective respirator they developed, and the operating principles of such devices, said: “The operating logic of these types of devices is essentially the same. The devices contain a fan motor, an electric motor. They also have a battery inside, a filter in the front part, and this part forms what we call the 'blower,' which is the air generator. This is a wearable item. Users can wear it and use it wherever they need it. When we operate the device, it takes in the dirty air from outside, passes it through the filter, and transmits the clean air through an air delivery hose to the mouth-nose mask, to our respiratory tract. Therefore, there is positive pressure inside. Disposable masks, whether N95 or whatever their protection level, it doesn't matter, or even full-face masks, can be dangerous to use. These operate with negative pressure, and even if you provide sealing, when users wear them, it’s not possible to prevent 100% of the leaks at the sealing points, which we call gaskets, on the part that fits the face, and there is a loss of efficiency there.”
“The issue of personal protective equipment has not been fully adopted by users”
Stating that comfortable equipment is possible with positive-pressure Helmact-style devices, Küçükdurmaz said: “We go to many different places. We observe everywhere, from large corporations to smaller industries. As an observer, we literally monitor every place. When we look at what people normally do and use, the issue of personal protective equipment has not been fully adopted by users. People are not very keen on protecting themselves. We recently went through processes like the pandemic. Even when we wore simple masks during the pandemic, after half an hour, when a feeling of suffocation or discomfort arose, you felt the need to take it off because there was an inability to breathe well, a need for deep breaths. Some people, due to their work, need respiratory protection from morning until night, but they also need to work comfortably. We cannot do this well with a negative-pressure device. That's why the equipment we provide to the person must be comfortable. This is only possible with positive-pressure 'Helmact'-style devices.”
“We can provide protection against dust or particles”
Engineer Ömer Küçükdurmaz emphasized that diseases that may arise in terms of occupational health and safety can be prevented with the correct use of masks: “If I need to state the areas of use; laboratories, paint, chemistry, heavy industry, military security, construction, textile, pharmaceuticals…etc. Generally speaking, we can currently provide protection against dust or particles that can cause lung diseases in all these industries. While we produce this device with a commercial expectation, innovation and being innovative are important for us here. Perhaps we could have done other projects much more easily and quickly, but this genuinely meets a need very clearly, and we need to be able to explain this. Users sometimes may not fully know their needs; we need to explain this device to them.” he stated.
The online event concluded after participants' questions were answered.