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Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

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Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#151

Post by iancmceachern »

GuB-42 wrote: post #139
iancmceachern wrote: post #88

Anytime you heat up plastic (melt it), or create a polymer from 2 parts (epoxy) there will be bad things released. This us fundamental to polymers. Check out all the urethane issues that early Disney imaganeers faced

There are many plastics and even more polymers. We usually reserve the terme "plastic" to synthetic materials but there are plastic-like materials in nature, like amber. Polymers includes things like proteins and DNA, basically what life is made of. So saying that releasing "bad things" (what does it even mean?) is a fundamental property of polymers is a bit too much. What "bad things"? What plastics? What dose?

Thank you, I can't edit it, but if I could I would edit my post to say "synthetic polyners"

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#152

Post by iancmceachern »

asddubs wrote: post #98
iancmceachern wrote: post #88

Anytime you heat up plastic (melt it), or create a polymer from 2 parts (epoxy) there will be bad things released. This us fundamental to polymers. Check out all the urethane issues that early Disney imaganeers faced

do you have more info? I googled but didn't find anything relevant

What kind of info are you looking for? Glad to try to help

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#153

Post by asddubs »

iancmceachern wrote: post #152
asddubs wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you have more info? I googled but didn't find anything relevant

What kind of info are you looking for? Glad to try to help

Oh, I suppose it wasn't clear, I was referring to this part:

>Check out all the urethane issues that early Disney imaganeers faced

I googled but found nothing about it. Well, it seems like google just ignored the keyword "urethane" in my search, to be specific

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#154

Post by cuttysnark »

alonmower wrote: post #148
danielheath wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The printer also has a CNC but I very quickly learned that I should _not_ run the blower fan when that's running. That was no fun to clean up. As someone considering a dust extraction hood for a hobby CNC - what happened?

The fan is in the enclosure and wasn't strong enough to collect everything but it blew it around and coated everything in the enclosure. It also sprayed it around a decent amount of it outside on the side of our house (vs just venting the gases when using the laser or 3d printer). I've seen some people set up vacuums that attach to the head so that dust is actually collected (and you get a filter in the vacuum to col…

I have a laser CNC, which has a built-in fan that is not quite strong enough to move both the smell and the particles out the exhaust system. I bought a pretty cheap dryer-vent blower fan and added it to the exhaust tube. With the addition of this fan, the particles and odor are sucked out sufficiently. Previously the smell of cut particle board and acrylic were so bad, I considered returning the machine.

The business-end of the exhaust tube sits outside a window, and has a reservoir for collecting debris that make it through the tubing--seems to also subdue the odor.

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#155

Post by tdeck »

esskay wrote: post #124
tdeck wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like the issue is particulates rather than gasses; in that case an activated carbon filter won't do much and a HEPA filter would be better.

With all the new materials that you can get I think a combination of both (plus venting to outside) is needed for real protection. The current hot new printer is the Bambu Lab X1. It's aimed at consumers and is capable of printing things like Carbon Fiber Nylon, Polycarbonate and Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). These are far more volatile than run of the mill PLA and theres less studies available on their long term…

For sure. Many of these materials aren't new on the 3D printing scene either (even I've printed TPU on my $180 delta printer).

For most hobbyists PLA is the vast majority of their print time and it's a shame that we don't even have convenient and affordable systems to mitigate the risks of the baseline material (I don't consider cobbling together your own enclosure, ducting, and filter system convenient. As we have seen with open frame laser engravers, most consumers won't bother).

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#156

Post by iancmceachern »

asddubs wrote: post #153
iancmceachern wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of info are you looking for? Glad to try to help

Oh, I suppose it wasn't clear, I was referring to this part: >Check out all the urethane issues that early Disney imaganeers faced I googled but found nothing about it. Well, it seems like google just ignored the keyword "urethane" in my search, to be specific

"While urethane can be an outstanding protective material for products such as items as small as wire or cases to items as large as residential homes, it can also be a very dangerous material. It is a recognized carcinogen, and it is hazardous to developing fetuses. Additionally, it is suspected to be toxic to the gastrointestinal system, liver, kidney, skin, and respiratory tract. It is, however, easy to prevent these dangers by wearing protective clothing and providing appropriate exhaust ventilation. It is also necessary to wash thoroughly after exposure. The risk of getting ill from urethane exposure is higher for industrial workers than residents of a community where urethane is processed, however if proper precautions are taken, adverse effects can be avoided."

https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/plastics-rubber/about-mol....

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#157

Post by louislang »

rmnwski wrote: post #85
louislang wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What impact does an enclosure with a filter have on the emission of particles and VOCs?

Emissions will go down, no? Also depends on the filter somewhat, I guess. But from how I understand it, the emissions aren't that high to begin with. Of course breathing in metal nano-particles from filaments with additives doesn't sound that healthy...

I think it would go down, but by how much? And is it significant enough to remove the requirement to vent outside?

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#158

Post by jameslao »

genderwhy wrote: post #118

People are saying 'ventilate'. Makes sense. I've got a resin printer in a large room with a crossbreeze, but I'd like to put in some more forced ventilation. Is there a quick thing I can buy that's got a small hood, inline fan, and waste vent? Or do I need to cobble something together myself out of flexible tubing? Is a portable hepa filter sufficient? I don't even know what to look for.

HEPA filters will filter out particulate but doesn't help with VOCs. For that you need carbon filters.

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#159

Post by alonmower »

cuttysnark wrote: post #154
alonmower wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fan is in the enclosure and wasn't strong enough to collect everything but it blew it around and coated everything in the enclosure. It also sprayed it around a decent amount of it outside on the side of our house (vs just venting the gases when using the laser or 3d printer). I've seen some people set up vacuums that attach to the head so that dust is actually collected (and you get a filter in the vacuum to col…

I have a laser CNC, which has a built-in fan that is not quite strong enough to move both the smell and the particles out the exhaust system. I bought a pretty cheap dryer-vent blower fan and added it to the exhaust tube. With the addition of this fan, the particles and odor are sucked out sufficiently. Previously the smell of cut particle board and acrylic were so bad, I considered returning the machine. The busines…

Nice, I have a pretty similar setup but don't have the reservoir, what are you using for that? My issue is that the CNC uses a drill bit so i get much bigger chunks/dust than the ultra fine particulate i get with the laser/3d printer

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#160

Post by alonmower »

worthless-trash wrote: post #149
alonmower wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fan is in the enclosure and wasn't strong enough to collect everything but it blew it around and coated everything in the enclosure. It also sprayed it around a decent amount of it outside on the side of our house (vs just venting the gases when using the laser or 3d printer). I've seen some people set up vacuums that attach to the head so that dust is actually collected (and you get a filter in the vacuum to col…

Can i suggest using a 'wet trap' (or dust seperator), they work a treat and you can make your own, and are easy to setup.

Nice, will look into this!
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