• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.248-254
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• 2023

This study aims to measure the skin rigidity of different facial areas among Koreans and propose guidelines for each area's skin rigidity that can be applied with a facial robot for testing respiratory protective devices. The facial skin rigidity of 40 participants, which included 20 men and 20 women, aged 20 to 50, was analyzed. The rigidity measurement was conducted in 13 facial areas, including six areas in contact with the mask and seven non-contact areas, by referring to the facial measurement guidelines of Size Korea. The facial rigidity was measured using the Durometer RX-1600-OO while in a supine position. The measurement procedure involved contacting the durometer vertically with the reference point, repeating the measurement of the same area five times, and using the average of three values whose variability was between 0.4 and 4.2 Shore OO. The rigidity data analysis used precision analysis, descriptive statistics analysis, and mixed-effect ANOVA. The analysis confirmed the rigidity of the 13 measurement areas, with the highest rigidity of the face being at the nose and forehead points, with values of 51.2 and 50.8, respectively, and the lowest rigidity being at the chin and center of the cheek points, with values of 19.2 and 20.7, respectively. Significant differences between gender groups were observed in four areas: the tip of the nose, the point below the chin, the area below the lower jaw, and the inner concha.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.42-52
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• 2024

Background: The lack of headforms that accurately reflect the head characteristics of Koreans and the demographic composition of the Korean population can lead to inadequate FFR testing and reduced effectiveness of FFRs. Method: Direct measurements of 5,110 individuals and 3D measurements of 2,044 individuals, aged between 9 and 69 years, were sampled from the data pool of Size Korea surveys based on the age and gender ratios of the Korean resident demographics. Seven head dimensions were selected based on the ISO 16976-2, availability of Size Korea measurements, and their relevance to the fit performance of FFRs. A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed using the direct measurements to extract the main factors explaining the head characteristics and then the main factors were standardized and remapped to 3D measurements, creating five size categories representing Korean head shapes. Lastly, representative 3D headforms were constructed by averaging five head shapes for each size category. Results: The study identified two main factors explaining Korean head characteristics by the PCA procedure specified in ISO 16976-2 and developed five representative headforms reflecting the anthropometric features of Korean heads: medium, small, large, short & wide, and long & narrow. Conclusion: This study developed representative headforms tailored to the Korean population for conducting total inward leakage (TIL) tests on filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs). The representative headforms can be used for TIL testing by employing robotic headforms to enhance the performance of FFRs for the Korean target population.