Some of this, I can’t really answer. Especially things related to Ikea.
That said, let me make a few points regarding printing and what goes on in the chamber when printing.
I stuck all those sensors in the chamber of my P1S because I wanted to confirm what initially was my opinion that these 3d printers, not just Bambu Labs were probably generating some toxic’s of various types. I wanted to confirm that my opinion was an accurate fact.
To convert opinion to fact requires data. I had long experience with many of the sensors because I built a couple of homemade weather stations a few years back.
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Burning plastic is toxic. I don’t think anyone will argue that point…
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Printers aren’t burning plastic but they get very close and everyone has, or will have, a failure that will have the hotend encased in a big gob of plastic. I certainly have. When I cleaned off my hotend/nozzle there was BURNT charred plastic at the center of that mess.
After mounting and moving sensors around inside the P1S chamber and tracking that data via a web based data tracking app run by Adafruit I validated my opinion as fact.
- 3D Printers, during NORMAL operation generate particulate.
- 3D Printers, during NORMAL operation generate VOC’s
VOC’s is an acronym for Volatile Organic Compounds. There are probably hundreds of different VOC’s in all sorts of different mixtures. To go to a point in the message that preceeds this one, DO NOT equate VOC’s with odor. Some smell, some don’t.
Particulate caught me by surprise. I had a couple of different particulate sensors on hand so connected them to my sensor chain but was not really expecting much to show up. The surprise was that not only was particulate being generated, but a fair amount of various sizes. I have no idea how much of that particulate migrates out of the chamber in a P1S or X1C. P1P, having no enclosure is dumping its particulate into the room. My theory of particulate is that it is generated as it exits the nozzle tip. I can’t remember if it is ABS or PETG or both, but if the poor print quality is, in fact, due to flashing of moisture at the nozzle tip, that is definitely going to generate particulate.
In regards to particulate, that can probably be dealt with with some sort of HEPA Filtration system. Like VOC’s, HEPA is an acronym for High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter. HEPA filters do not solve the VOC problem.
VOC’s are down at the molecule size so will slip right through HEPA media.
VOC’s require some sort of scrubbing media. I have no idea if the air purifier you can buy at Best Buy has air purifiers with scrubbers.
As far as some sort of fan to just exhaust outdoors, don’t confuse the vacuum of your vacuum cleaner with the amount of vacuum required to move dirty air outside. You do not need that level of vacuum, you need just enough vacuum that room air seeps into the chamber and not chamber air seeping into the room.
I’m not running my printer 24/7 nor do I have a printer farm so I am not overly concerned about an intermittent puff of VOC’s or particulate into my living room from the adjoining dining nook where my printer lives.
The biggy for people who print sporadically is to not open the door during printing and inadvertently inhaling a lungful of VOC’s and particulate.
If I was printing 24/7 or I was running a printer farm, my concern would be significantly higher.
If you are aware of coal miners and black lung, or asbestos and Mesothelioma, those were particulate exposure over time.
I worked in a large powerplant and we were constantly testing for both VOC’s, particulate and a whole host of other regulated emissions every year.
Anyone who is interested, you can monitor these items locally if you know Python programming. This data can be read via Home Assistant but that is something I have not messed with at all. You can also capture the data via Adafruit’s Adafruit Particulate Sensor , or their Adafruit air quality sensors