“…One concern about the efficacy of using AM to produce respirators is the intrinsic porosity in FFF- and PBF-produced parts, which can affect filtration efficiency, accuracy, and reliability of the printed respirators. In FFF processes, porosity can result from adjacent layers not fully fusing [ 12 , 13 ], gaps left from changing direction and stopping/starting melt extrusion, and/or gaps left from adjacent extruded paths failing to fuse together [ 14 , 15 ]. Such inherent, process-induced defects have been shown to cause up to 32% porosity in FFF parts, with 200–800 μm diameter pores [ 16 ], which could render them ineffective in protecting against 0.3 μm virus particles.…”