After three years of innovation and market explorations, Doctor Hou yanlin, a young father of five- year old girl, from Tsinghua University, with his colleagues all with doctorial degree, have made profits from their smog masks specially designed for children.

Regrettably, in 2014, Mr. Hou found it so difficult to find suitable air pollution masks for his then three-year-old daughter. When he tried the commonly seen masks on sale for his daughter, he found that they were not the best for the children. He had to spend more on expensive replaceable filter element with less comfortable masks. Hou then decided to design a mask specially designed for the children.

Hou's ideas quickly gained popularity among his friends, who are also young fathers with doctorial degree. Later soon, a team with more than 30 doctors with different academic background was built. But, they soon discovered that it was a tough job: it is not simply to down size the adult masks, but also a product designed in accordance with the physiological and psychological characteristics of youngsters. They have to make sure that children should breathe smoothly with the new products, but their facial development couldn't be affected.

After numerous of tests and more than 100 times of design adjustment,a new mask with replaceable filter element, specially designed for youngsters above the age three came into market in 2015. The patented masks enjoyed great popularity among young parents. This year, they made a profit of 6 million yuan.

Hou says that the team preferred the disposable masks with stereoscopic skeleton design in the first place, because this design was acknowledgedly of good comfortableness andairtightness. However, the cost of this design is high due to the high cost of stereoscopic skeleton production and transportation. It is a waste of recourses to throw away the masks used for only one day or two.

As an effort to lower the cost and make more consumers use the new masks, they invented a plate structure skeleton with much lower cost. The consumers could easily turn the mask into bowl shape with only two snap joints. "The cost of the new design is only one third of the stereoscopic skeleton ones. We have filed invention applications now," says Dr. Hou.

Hou's confidence roots in the innovative products and their business philosophy. They are determined to invent affordable products for each family with outstanding quality, not just to make profits. They want to help the young generations grow healthily with new technology. 

(by Yang Liu)

(Source: China IP News)