AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Evaluating and Controlling Human Exposure to Ultrafine Particle and VOC Emissions from Desktop 3D Printers
PARHAM AZIMI, Dan Zhao, Brent Stephens, Illinois Institute of Technology
Abstract Number: 284 Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract Desktop 3D printers are rapidly increasing in popularity. The majority of commercially available 3D printers utilize a fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique in which a solid thermoplastic filament is forced through a heated extrusion nozzle. In a previous pilot study, this process was shown to emit large numbers of ultrafine particles (UFPs: particles less than 100 nm in size). Moreover, users often complain of pungent odors during operation, suggesting likely VOC emissions as well. However, several questions remain regarding: (1) What is the magnitude of emissions of both UFPs and VOCs from various printers, filaments, and temperature settings? (2) What do those emissions mean for exposures in typical indoor environments, and (3) What are the most effective methods for controlling emissions and exposures? Therefore, in this work we characterized time resolved emission rates of UFPs and TVOCs from five popular commercially available FDM desktop 3Dprinters operating with a variety of thermoplastic filaments in a medium sized (3.6 m3) stainless steel chamber and evaluated the efficacy of multiple aerosols and gas control strategies (including spot ventilation, a custom enclosure, and a custom filtration system) in both chamber and field experiments. More than 20 printer and filament combinations were used to print a standardized 10 cm2 object with one centimeter thickness. Preliminary results demonstrate the following: (1) UFP emission rates are highly varying in time, commonly ranging from ~10^13 #/min at the beginning and ending peak periods and ~10^11 #/min in the middle of operation; (2) TVOC emission rates are relatively constant; and (3) UFP and TVOC emission rates are highly dependent on the make and model of both the printer and the filament. The laboratory and field studies also demonstrate that a custom sealed enclosure was a simple and effective solution to mitigating exposures to emissions from 3D printers