AAAR 32nd Annual Conference
September 30 - October 4, 2013
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Ultrafine Particle Emissions from Desktop Three-Dimensional Printers
Parham Azimi, Zeineb El Orch, Tiffanie Ramos, Robert Zylstra, Julie Steele, BRENT STEPHENS, Illinois Institute of Technology
Abstract Number: 480 Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract Three-dimensional printers that utilize additive manufacturing processes are gaining popularity as rapid prototyping devices. The development of low-cost desktop versions has made this technology widely accessible for use in home and office settings. The majority of commercially available 3D printers utilize an extrusion deposition technique whereby a plastic filament wound on a coil is unreeled to supply a computer-driven moving extrusion nozzle. The heated nozzle melts the plastic feedstock and deposits small extruded thermoplastic beads in thin layers across a baseplate. The material immediately hardens to form a three-dimensional shape. Despite their rapid uptake, little information exists on potential emissions from operation of these high temperature desktop devices indoors, particularly for aerosols.
Therefore, we measured particle emissions from two types of commercially available desktop 3D printers operating inside an office space using a TSI NanoScan SMPS logging at 1-minute intervals. First, two printers fed by PLA (polylactic acid) were operated together to print sample plastic products. Second, printing from these two printers was repeated in conjunction with three additional higher temperature printers fed by ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) to print the same plastic products.
The 3D printers were shown to have substantial aerosol emissions primarily in the ultrafine (<100 nm) size range. Peak emissions occurred in the 30-50 nm range. The mean UFP emission rate from the higher temperature ABS printers was estimated to be ~1.9×10$^(11) #/min each compared to ~2.4×10$^(10) #/min for each of the lower temperature PLA devices. With all five devices operating at the same time in the office, mean UFP emission rates were estimated as ~6.5×10$^(11) #/min. These data represent some of the first known measurements of which we are aware of particle emissions from desktop 3D printers and suggest that caution should be used when operating these instruments in unvented indoor environments.