Thomas Walls
BDes (Hons) Product Design
The Tri-Air
The Tri-Air is a hobby respirator with three different filter types is a versatile piece of personal protective equipment designed for makers, hobbyists, and artists who engage in a range of activities that generate dust, fumes, vapours, or particulates. This type of respirator enhances safety and comfort by allowing users to switch or combine filters based on the material or process they’re working with. The multi-filter hobby respirator is a specialized, adaptable safety mask designed for people who work across different types of materials and processes—like woodworkers, model builders, DIY crafters, painters, resin casters, and 3D printing enthusiasts. It’s engineered to provide reliable protection against a range of airborne hazards while remaining comfortable and easy to use.
The TRI-AIR being used in the workshop was an unreal experience seeing it go from concept to reality
Some renders were made of the mask to develop the aesthetics of it while also thinking about potential promotion images.
Many prototypes were created while designing the TRI-AIR, an estimate of almost 100+.
Fusion 360 was a fantastic way to split the mask and see how it worked internally without printing hundreds more prototypes making it the right tool.
An early prototype render of the mask featured a light at the front for working in low light conditions but this was later scrapped
Early concept of the filter cartridge
An exploded view of the filter shows the level of design and detail in the filters design taking hours about hours of tinkering to get right