11 ms·

Ultra-fine particles emitted by commercial desktop 3D printers [pdf]

188 points by hippich 11y ago

drostie 11y ago
I wonder if this could be solved temporarily by simply placing the 3D printer in a clear plastic trash bag -- or would that lead to overheating?
- aylons 11y ago
  Actually, lots of 3D printers have a box in which the process takes place, so the temperature stays relatively constant, both in time and through the piece being made.
  - jeffdubin 11y ago
    The study reported that even the tested devices which were enclosed still emitted plenty of VOCs: "Interestingly, the presence of an enclosure only moderately reduced UFP emission rates from the MakerBot–ABS combination, with a ∼35% reduction in the median emission rate (although this variation is within the estimate of uncertainty). Larger reductions were not observed, perhaps because the enclosure was not completely sealed and large gaps were visible. While these two comparisons provide preliminary data on how printed shape and presence of an enclosure may impact particle emissions from 3D printers, no other definitive conclusions can be drawn given this limited data set."
    - snarfy 11y ago
      Many enclosures are not fully sealed. It makes a huge difference if the enclosure is air tight.
  - dghughes 11y ago
    If they're "ultrafine particles" you'd think they'd just blow around once the cover was removed think dust in a sunbeam. My father has a lung disease called IPF (terminal) which is scarring of the lungs it occurs over time from various particles. He was a blue collar worker exposed to various fine particles; sawdust, welding fumes, grinding metal, paint, probably some asbestos insulation etc. at his place work over the decades which caused small amounts of damage each year. Lungs are not to be messed with they're so delicate and lung cancer isn't the worst fatal lung disease you can get.
    - YZF 11y ago
      The very small stuff doesn't blow around like dust. For one once they stick on to something they're very hard to remove. Unlike normal "dust" you can't wipe them easily or blow them away.
ekianjo 11y ago
I was expecting such a discussion to come up at some point since 3D printers become more widely available. This being said, while the exposure is likely lower, one should also be careful of all the dust that's emitted by your PC/Monitor (including TVs) since it's composed of heavy metals, plastics, solvents and other not so friendly organic compounds - breathing them over a long time is unlikely to be completely harmless.
- hackbinary 11y ago
  Most of the dust inside computers is trapped from the surrounding environment, and not coming from the equipment itself. Therefore most dust from inside domestic and office based equipment is dead skin. That being said there will be trace amounts of other contaminants.
castratikron 11y ago
We've got a room at work that's filled with different breeds of 3D printer. Luckily this room is kind of special in that there's no ceiling, which would allow fresh air to come and go from the rest of the building.
- nkozyra 11y ago
  What keeps rain/elements out. Also while this helps it's not a solution for ultrafine particles.
  - hueving 11y ago
    I think OP means it is open to the area above the ceilings in the rest of the rooms, but still is beneath the roof.
- kzrdude 11y ago
  It sounds like particles may spread to the whole building then. A ventilation outlet close would be better.
samcheng 11y ago
To the hardware hackers reading this: It probably wouldn't be terrible idea to take a page from Beijing residents and keep an air filter around. http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Long-Life-QuietCare-Purifier-17000-S/dp/B000050AQ5/ http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Long-Life-QuietCare-Purifier... works to 0.3um particle size. Even better would be an actual fume hood if you're serious. They're a good idea if you like to solder stuff, too...
- userbinator 11y ago
  0.3um is too big, the particles referred to in the article are <0.1um.
  - samcheng 11y ago
    You're right! The article concerns Ultra-Fine Particles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrafine_particle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrafine_particle A HEPA filter will still do some good, though, and 0.3um is about as small as can reasonably be found on consumer-level filters. See http://sentryair.com/blog/tag/hepa-for-ufp/ http://sentryair.com/blog/tag/hepa-for-ufp/ Edit: From the article: As you can see in the photos the 3D printer produced over 190,000 particles of varying sizes. After the Model 300 pulled the particle-laden air through its HEPA filter, the scanner detected 0 particles at the unit’s air output.
    - memonkey 11y ago
      IQAir HealthPro Plus claims 0.003 and honestly, I believe it. Disclaimer: I work for them but my opinions are my own and backed by some really great science/technology.
      - samcheng 11y ago
        Cool! $1000 for a "Hyper HEPA" filter. Maybe a good insurance investment for the company with a room full of 3D printers... after they pay for the HVAC guy to come in and install some real exhaust ventilation duct work.
Palomides 11y ago
This has definitely been discussed here before; if you're worried, it's generally agreed that PLA fumes/particles are much safer.
- amenghra 11y ago
  My understanding is that PLA safety has been established at ambient temperature (and it is safe). Consequences of exposure to heated PLA is still an unknown. Personally, I would only use 3D printers in well ventilated areas. I would also not eat from 3D printed food utensils, even though some of the stuff people have designed look fabulous.
  - Palomides 11y ago
    there are plenty of good reasons not to eat off of 3D printed materials (impossibility of cleaning/sterilizing them properly), fear about the properties changing due to heating the PLA seems weird since any plastic you interact with has almost certainly been heated at some point. by the time you're inhaling these particles, they're not going to be much (if at all) warmer than room temperature.
ausjke 11y ago
laser printer has similar pollution issues too
gedy 11y ago
Interesting, but being cynical: sounds like a great excuse for politicians to jump on and regulate them for "health reasons".. Pay no attention to the corporate copyright trolls behind them though.
- hippich 11y ago
  Just like with "drones" - it might impede big manufacturers, but hobbyist will keep doing it. Also, after "print-a-gun" plans released, nothing major happened. So I hope common sense will prevail.
- logicallee 11y ago
  I'd like you to fill me in, are there actual corporate copyright trolls concerned about 3D printing? Or is this a hypothetical? (Sorry, I haven't kept up with the state of maker stuff.) What I mean is this an actual real-world issue today? If this is a hypothetical, please take this in the best possible way and bear in mind that you were downvoted, your comment is currently light-grey to me: personally just to me it sounds like you're preparing in advance to be in the wrong, i.e. you're preparing a moral and legal position for something that doesn't exist yet, nobody cares about 3D printed coprights ,but even though it doesn't exist yet you've already chosen the wrong side and have started to prepare snide, snark, and incorrect arguments so that you could defend being in the wrong - and that you can't wait to start being in the wrong. If this is the case, then you would be the troll in the conversation. It's just how I personally read your comment. But before we get ahead of ourselves - is this a future argument (are you ahead of your time), or has it started to be an issue already? can you give references? Sorry if I was hard in the middle paragraph, I've just literally never heard of a 3D printing copyright troll. I've just googled it and got some hypothetical articles from 2012. My own perspective is that society has a choice between, on the one hand: (A) letting some designer put 5,000 hours of work into designing something intricate thing that grants people huge amounts of utility, it's a fanstatic achievement that costs you $0.27 in plastic to print at home and gives you real benefits - but they rae charging $4.99 on Steam for the privilege, while addressing some level of piracy; and (B) on the one hand, the status quo where you don't get the utility (let's value at it $80) from the $0.27 piece of plastic, because nobody has designed it for you. It seems to me right now the status quo is (B). Obviously lots of great stuff could be made and 3d printed for pennies, that nobody has designed. Some guy designed a fully working tourbillon watch. (more like clock) Look at how he brazenly puts his name/logo on it http://hackaday.com/2016/01/11/3d-printed-tourbillon-clock/ http://hackaday.com/2016/01/11/3d-printed-tourbillon-clock/ Do you think he shouldn't have any level of copyright protection on these projects, if he wants it? Really? I'm just kind of angry because you're showing a level of entitlement over something that doesn't even exist yet. people don't really get lots of benefit from 3d printing intricately designed works at home.
pg_is_a_butt 11y ago
the same ultrafine particles unable to be filtered out of your drinking water? nice try commies, i know you don't want people 3D printing their own guns to overthrow your fascism, but, it's here, it's queer, and you need to get used to it.
Animats 11y ago
Non-paywall version: [1] Probably the way to deal with this is to have an exhaust system which keeps the build chamber below atmospheric pressure. Exhaust through a water air filter.[2] Water air filters work well on particles, but you have to keep dumping the dirty water and adding fresh water. They're not used much in HVAC or vacuum cleaners because they take a lot of blower power, but for a small 3D printer, where you're not moving much air, they should work. [1] http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/commercial_desktop_3D_printers_emit_ultra_fine_particles_48si9_en.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsale... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyEyO4iuz5E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyEyO4iuz5E
- dang 11y ago
  Thanks, we changed the URL to that from http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b04983 http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b04983.
  - Animats 11y ago
    That redirects to "http://pubs.acs.org/action/cookieAbsent" http://pubs.acs.org/action/cookieAbsent", probably because I'm blocking some cookie or tracker. That's a bit much for the American Chemical Society, which is supposed to be an academic organization, not a source of clickbait.
- ryandonner 11y ago
  Yes but then aren't you polluting the water? Where are you going to dump the water? Recently legislation was passed to ban micro particles from abrasive soaps and creams because they ended up in the water supply from people flushing them down the drains. See: http://www.npr.org/2014/05/21/313157701/why-those-tiny-microbeads-in-soap-may-pose-problem-for-great-lakes http://www.npr.org/2014/05/21/313157701/why-those-tiny-micro... This does not seem like a real solution, it only moves the problem somewhere else.
  - Animats 11y ago
    There's biodegradable ABS [1] but it's not clear that it would degrade much in water. [1] http://3dprintingindustry.com/2015/08/14/biodegradable-abs-filament-thanks-to-our-friends-bacteria/ http://3dprintingindustry.com/2015/08/14/biodegradable-abs-f...
jacobolus 11y ago
> “Compared to other domestic sources of UFPs, the 3D printing using PLA had a similar UFP emission to cooking using an electric frying pan. Using ABS resulted in UFP emissions similar to those from grilling food on a gas or electric stove at low power.” So should we also be avoiding rooms where people are cooking?
- NegativeK 11y ago
  The particle types are different, and people generally don't leave their stove running for eight hours a day. But, in my experience, both kitchens and hobbyist 3d printers can produce piles of spaghetti very easily.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    Clearly, the next step is to combine the technologies and 3D print pasta. Oops, looks like I'm behind the times: http://www.3ders.org/articles/20150505-pasta-maker-barilla-to-show-off-its-3d-pasta-printer-at-the-milan-expo-2015.html http://www.3ders.org/articles/20150505-pasta-maker-barilla-t...
- woodruffw 11y ago
  Maybe if they're cooking plastic.
- eru 11y ago
  You can get a fume hood for cooking as well as for soldering.
  - sean-duffy 11y ago
    You mean an extractor fan?
  - castratikron 11y ago
    Why would I want to suck up those delicious solder fumes?
msds 11y ago
We just finished an independent survey of 5 consumer level machines with a bunch of different materials, looking at both 10-500nm particulate and HCN emissions. Essentially, even with ABS, if you're in a decently well ventilated area, you're fine, and if you're still worried, PLA or TPU drastically reduce particulate. I'd really love to share the paper right now, but it's someone else's masters thesis that hasn't been released yet. If anyone is interested in it and can remember, ping me in a few months?
- pen2l 11y ago
  Cool. May I ask, which printers did you test? Makerbot, lulzbot, ultimaker, zortrax, prusa?
  - msds 11y ago
    Flashforge creator pros and ultimakers.
- smoyer 11y ago
  That's a great nickname here if you're business is that kind of testing. Do the spools of plastic used in these printers typically ship with the appropriate MSDS? I'm only familiar with the plastic "pellets" that are used in injection molding plants. There are definitely MSDS posted in the plastics store-room (and obviously the machines are very well vented).
  - msds 11y ago
    None of the standard vendors we use actually ship the MSDS, but most do supply it online. I'm not in that business, but I do deal with various safety concerns quite a bit. When faced with basic tools, the average person tends to have a terrifying combination of inventiveness and stupidity...
    - jacquesm 11y ago
      The absolute world record holder: friend of mine was low on money and needed a chop saw. He figured one motor is as good as another and managed to disassemble his vacuum cleaner and hook up the blade to the motor. It seems that those 'max RPM' warnings on circular saw blades actually do have some relevance and the blade fragments embedded over 1" in the doorframe were proof that making a proper chop saw requires a motor with less RPM than a vacuum cleaner. It's a miracle nobody died.
Sephr 11y ago
Does this apply to the newer DLP-based 3D printers that "pull" an object out of a pool of resin? Since there are no nozzles, it seems like that method of 3D printing would probably be safer.
- tonyarkles 11y ago
  I'm guessing not, but the resin liquids do have their own concerns. They're certainly not friendly chemicals; the ones I've been exposed to seem to stick to your hands quite well, and irritate mucuous membranes (don't scratch your eye or pick your nose unless you've very thoroughly washed your hands with soap and water).
FrankenPC 11y ago
Can something like an Ionic Breeze type system work? Or does it have to be HEPA? Frankly, the smell alone makes me want to enclose it in acrylic and use a HEPA + carbon + fan.
justifier 11y ago
i wonder if there is ground for similar concern in photolithographic 3d printing i think it is a more promising technology than the more populace popular extruder fdm i'd love to see the peachy(o) team run similar tests (o) http://www.peachyprinter.com/ http://www.peachyprinter.com/

188 points by hippich 11y ago

I wonder if this could be solved temporarily by simply placing the 3D printer in a clear plastic trash bag -- or would that lead to overheating?

aylons 11y ago
Actually, lots of 3D printers have a box in which the process takes place, so the temperature stays relatively constant, both in time and through the piece being made.
- jeffdubin 11y ago
  The study reported that even the tested devices which were enclosed still emitted plenty of VOCs: "Interestingly, the presence of an enclosure only moderately reduced UFP emission rates from the MakerBot–ABS combination, with a ∼35% reduction in the median emission rate (although this variation is within the estimate of uncertainty). Larger reductions were not observed, perhaps because the enclosure was not completely sealed and large gaps were visible. While these two comparisons provide preliminary data on how printed shape and presence of an enclosure may impact particle emissions from 3D printers, no other definitive conclusions can be drawn given this limited data set."
  - snarfy 11y ago
    Many enclosures are not fully sealed. It makes a huge difference if the enclosure is air tight.
- dghughes 11y ago
  If they're "ultrafine particles" you'd think they'd just blow around once the cover was removed think dust in a sunbeam. My father has a lung disease called IPF (terminal) which is scarring of the lungs it occurs over time from various particles. He was a blue collar worker exposed to various fine particles; sawdust, welding fumes, grinding metal, paint, probably some asbestos insulation etc. at his place work over the decades which caused small amounts of damage each year. Lungs are not to be messed with they're so delicate and lung cancer isn't the worst fatal lung disease you can get.
  - YZF 11y ago
    The very small stuff doesn't blow around like dust. For one once they stick on to something they're very hard to remove. Unlike normal "dust" you can't wipe them easily or blow them away.

ekianjo 11y ago

I was expecting such a discussion to come up at some point since 3D printers become more widely available. This being said, while the exposure is likely lower, one should also be careful of all the dust that's emitted by your PC/Monitor (including TVs) since it's composed of heavy metals, plastics, solvents and other not so friendly organic compounds - breathing them over a long time is unlikely to be completely harmless.

hackbinary 11y ago
Most of the dust inside computers is trapped from the surrounding environment, and not coming from the equipment itself. Therefore most dust from inside domestic and office based equipment is dead skin. That being said there will be trace amounts of other contaminants.

castratikron 11y ago

We've got a room at work that's filled with different breeds of 3D printer. Luckily this room is kind of special in that there's no ceiling, which would allow fresh air to come and go from the rest of the building.

nkozyra 11y ago
What keeps rain/elements out. Also while this helps it's not a solution for ultrafine particles.
- hueving 11y ago
  I think OP means it is open to the area above the ceilings in the rest of the rooms, but still is beneath the roof.
kzrdude 11y ago
It sounds like particles may spread to the whole building then. A ventilation outlet close would be better.

samcheng 11y ago

To the hardware hackers reading this: It probably wouldn't be terrible idea to take a page from Beijing residents and keep an air filter around. http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Long-Life-QuietCare-Purifier-17000-S/dp/B000050AQ5/ http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Long-Life-QuietCare-Purifier... works to 0.3um particle size. Even better would be an actual fume hood if you're serious. They're a good idea if you like to solder stuff, too...

userbinator 11y ago
0.3um is too big, the particles referred to in the article are <0.1um.
- samcheng 11y ago
  You're right! The article concerns Ultra-Fine Particles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrafine_particle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrafine_particle A HEPA filter will still do some good, though, and 0.3um is about as small as can reasonably be found on consumer-level filters. See http://sentryair.com/blog/tag/hepa-for-ufp/ http://sentryair.com/blog/tag/hepa-for-ufp/ Edit: From the article: As you can see in the photos the 3D printer produced over 190,000 particles of varying sizes. After the Model 300 pulled the particle-laden air through its HEPA filter, the scanner detected 0 particles at the unit’s air output.
  - memonkey 11y ago
    IQAir HealthPro Plus claims 0.003 and honestly, I believe it. Disclaimer: I work for them but my opinions are my own and backed by some really great science/technology.
    - samcheng 11y ago
      Cool! $1000 for a "Hyper HEPA" filter. Maybe a good insurance investment for the company with a room full of 3D printers... after they pay for the HVAC guy to come in and install some real exhaust ventilation duct work.

Palomides 11y ago

This has definitely been discussed here before; if you're worried, it's generally agreed that PLA fumes/particles are much safer.

amenghra 11y ago
My understanding is that PLA safety has been established at ambient temperature (and it is safe). Consequences of exposure to heated PLA is still an unknown. Personally, I would only use 3D printers in well ventilated areas. I would also not eat from 3D printed food utensils, even though some of the stuff people have designed look fabulous.
- Palomides 11y ago
  there are plenty of good reasons not to eat off of 3D printed materials (impossibility of cleaning/sterilizing them properly), fear about the properties changing due to heating the PLA seems weird since any plastic you interact with has almost certainly been heated at some point. by the time you're inhaling these particles, they're not going to be much (if at all) warmer than room temperature.

ausjke 11y ago

laser printer has similar pollution issues too

gedy 11y ago

Interesting, but being cynical: sounds like a great excuse for politicians to jump on and regulate them for "health reasons".. Pay no attention to the corporate copyright trolls behind them though.

hippich 11y ago
Just like with "drones" - it might impede big manufacturers, but hobbyist will keep doing it. Also, after "print-a-gun" plans released, nothing major happened. So I hope common sense will prevail.
logicallee 11y ago
I'd like you to fill me in, are there actual corporate copyright trolls concerned about 3D printing? Or is this a hypothetical? (Sorry, I haven't kept up with the state of maker stuff.) What I mean is this an actual real-world issue today? If this is a hypothetical, please take this in the best possible way and bear in mind that you were downvoted, your comment is currently light-grey to me: personally just to me it sounds like you're preparing in advance to be in the wrong, i.e. you're preparing a moral and legal position for something that doesn't exist yet, nobody cares about 3D printed coprights ,but even though it doesn't exist yet you've already chosen the wrong side and have started to prepare snide, snark, and incorrect arguments so that you could defend being in the wrong - and that you can't wait to start being in the wrong. If this is the case, then you would be the troll in the conversation. It's just how I personally read your comment. But before we get ahead of ourselves - is this a future argument (are you ahead of your time), or has it started to be an issue already? can you give references? Sorry if I was hard in the middle paragraph, I've just literally never heard of a 3D printing copyright troll. I've just googled it and got some hypothetical articles from 2012. My own perspective is that society has a choice between, on the one hand: (A) letting some designer put 5,000 hours of work into designing something intricate thing that grants people huge amounts of utility, it's a fanstatic achievement that costs you $0.27 in plastic to print at home and gives you real benefits - but they rae charging $4.99 on Steam for the privilege, while addressing some level of piracy; and (B) on the one hand, the status quo where you don't get the utility (let's value at it $80) from the $0.27 piece of plastic, because nobody has designed it for you. It seems to me right now the status quo is (B). Obviously lots of great stuff could be made and 3d printed for pennies, that nobody has designed. Some guy designed a fully working tourbillon watch. (more like clock) Look at how he brazenly puts his name/logo on it http://hackaday.com/2016/01/11/3d-printed-tourbillon-clock/ http://hackaday.com/2016/01/11/3d-printed-tourbillon-clock/ Do you think he shouldn't have any level of copyright protection on these projects, if he wants it? Really? I'm just kind of angry because you're showing a level of entitlement over something that doesn't even exist yet. people don't really get lots of benefit from 3d printing intricately designed works at home.

pg_is_a_butt 11y ago

the same ultrafine particles unable to be filtered out of your drinking water? nice try commies, i know you don't want people 3D printing their own guns to overthrow your fascism, but, it's here, it's queer, and you need to get used to it.

Animats 11y ago

Non-paywall version: [1] Probably the way to deal with this is to have an exhaust system which keeps the build chamber below atmospheric pressure. Exhaust through a water air filter.[2] Water air filters work well on particles, but you have to keep dumping the dirty water and adding fresh water. They're not used much in HVAC or vacuum cleaners because they take a lot of blower power, but for a small 3D printer, where you're not moving much air, they should work. [1] http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/commercial_desktop_3D_printers_emit_ultra_fine_particles_48si9_en.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsale... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyEyO4iuz5E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyEyO4iuz5E

dang 11y ago
Thanks, we changed the URL to that from http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b04983 http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b04983.
- Animats 11y ago
  That redirects to "http://pubs.acs.org/action/cookieAbsent" http://pubs.acs.org/action/cookieAbsent", probably because I'm blocking some cookie or tracker. That's a bit much for the American Chemical Society, which is supposed to be an academic organization, not a source of clickbait.
ryandonner 11y ago
Yes but then aren't you polluting the water? Where are you going to dump the water? Recently legislation was passed to ban micro particles from abrasive soaps and creams because they ended up in the water supply from people flushing them down the drains. See: http://www.npr.org/2014/05/21/313157701/why-those-tiny-microbeads-in-soap-may-pose-problem-for-great-lakes http://www.npr.org/2014/05/21/313157701/why-those-tiny-micro... This does not seem like a real solution, it only moves the problem somewhere else.
- Animats 11y ago
  There's biodegradable ABS [1] but it's not clear that it would degrade much in water. [1] http://3dprintingindustry.com/2015/08/14/biodegradable-abs-filament-thanks-to-our-friends-bacteria/ http://3dprintingindustry.com/2015/08/14/biodegradable-abs-f...

jacobolus 11y ago

> “Compared to other domestic sources of UFPs, the 3D printing using PLA had a similar UFP emission to cooking using an electric frying pan. Using ABS resulted in UFP emissions similar to those from grilling food on a gas or electric stove at low power.” So should we also be avoiding rooms where people are cooking?

NegativeK 11y ago
The particle types are different, and people generally don't leave their stove running for eight hours a day. But, in my experience, both kitchens and hobbyist 3d printers can produce piles of spaghetti very easily.
- mikeash 11y ago
  Clearly, the next step is to combine the technologies and 3D print pasta. Oops, looks like I'm behind the times: http://www.3ders.org/articles/20150505-pasta-maker-barilla-to-show-off-its-3d-pasta-printer-at-the-milan-expo-2015.html http://www.3ders.org/articles/20150505-pasta-maker-barilla-t...
woodruffw 11y ago
Maybe if they're cooking plastic.
eru 11y ago
You can get a fume hood for cooking as well as for soldering.
- sean-duffy 11y ago
  You mean an extractor fan?
- castratikron 11y ago
  Why would I want to suck up those delicious solder fumes?

msds 11y ago

We just finished an independent survey of 5 consumer level machines with a bunch of different materials, looking at both 10-500nm particulate and HCN emissions. Essentially, even with ABS, if you're in a decently well ventilated area, you're fine, and if you're still worried, PLA or TPU drastically reduce particulate. I'd really love to share the paper right now, but it's someone else's masters thesis that hasn't been released yet. If anyone is interested in it and can remember, ping me in a few months?

pen2l 11y ago
Cool. May I ask, which printers did you test? Makerbot, lulzbot, ultimaker, zortrax, prusa?
- msds 11y ago
  Flashforge creator pros and ultimakers.
smoyer 11y ago
That's a great nickname here if you're business is that kind of testing. Do the spools of plastic used in these printers typically ship with the appropriate MSDS? I'm only familiar with the plastic "pellets" that are used in injection molding plants. There are definitely MSDS posted in the plastics store-room (and obviously the machines are very well vented).
- msds 11y ago
  None of the standard vendors we use actually ship the MSDS, but most do supply it online. I'm not in that business, but I do deal with various safety concerns quite a bit. When faced with basic tools, the average person tends to have a terrifying combination of inventiveness and stupidity...
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    The absolute world record holder: friend of mine was low on money and needed a chop saw. He figured one motor is as good as another and managed to disassemble his vacuum cleaner and hook up the blade to the motor. It seems that those 'max RPM' warnings on circular saw blades actually do have some relevance and the blade fragments embedded over 1" in the doorframe were proof that making a proper chop saw requires a motor with less RPM than a vacuum cleaner. It's a miracle nobody died.

Sephr 11y ago

Does this apply to the newer DLP-based 3D printers that "pull" an object out of a pool of resin? Since there are no nozzles, it seems like that method of 3D printing would probably be safer.

tonyarkles 11y ago
I'm guessing not, but the resin liquids do have their own concerns. They're certainly not friendly chemicals; the ones I've been exposed to seem to stick to your hands quite well, and irritate mucuous membranes (don't scratch your eye or pick your nose unless you've very thoroughly washed your hands with soap and water).

FrankenPC 11y ago

Can something like an Ionic Breeze type system work? Or does it have to be HEPA? Frankly, the smell alone makes me want to enclose it in acrylic and use a HEPA + carbon + fan.

justifier 11y ago

i wonder if there is ground for similar concern in photolithographic 3d printing i think it is a more promising technology than the more populace popular extruder fdm i'd love to see the peachy(o) team run similar tests (o) http://www.peachyprinter.com/ http://www.peachyprinter.com/