Apple has designed masks for its corporate and retail employees to safeguard them and help contain the spread of the coronavirus. While the Apple Face Mask is an in-house creation, the totally transparent ClearMask is outsourced.
The Apple Face Mask with three layers for efficient filtering, was developed by the Company’s engineering and industrial design teams. It is washable and can be reused at least five times. These unique masks have large coverings for the user’s nose and chin, with strings that go around the ears.
A result of painstaking research and trials, these masks will be made available to the staff within the next 15 days.
The ClearMask, on the other hand, is the first completely transparent surgical mask to have received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These are expected to benefit those with hearing impairment as the complete face is visible, and the expressions and mouth can be read clearly. While Apple is working on creating its own transparent masks inhouse, the ClearMask has been procured by the information technology major in consultation with Gallaudet University, which works in the area of educating students with hearing impairment. It has also been tested out at a few Apple stores.
Earlier, Apple staff were using standard cloth masks, while the customers walking into its retail stores were being offered basic surgical masks.
In April, Apple had designed and created face shields for hospital employers, and also donated about 20 million face masks to frontline workers in the healthcare sector across the US.
