Transcript
There are two types of emissions from a 3D printer. They are particulates and gaseous chemicals, better known as VOCs. Most of the particulates originate from filament being heated or resin curing. The size of these particles are so small that it is impossible to see them with the naked eye.
What we know as PM 2 point 5 and PM10 makes up most of the mass of the emissions, but by count, most are ultrafine particles that are under 100 nanometers in diameter. Thankfully, the large particles are readily captured by even mediocre air filters. Our body can even stop a percentage of large particles using hair follicles, mucus, and alveolar macrophages, which are cells deep within the lungs that engulf foreign substances.
On the other hand, any ultrafine particles that we breathe in evade our frontline defenses and are able to cross the air-blood barrier in our lungs. 3-D printers produce between 88 million and 2.8 trillion UFPs every minute, depending on a variety of variables like material and temperature.
The UFPs that wind up in the blood are distributed throughout the body, damaging cells until they are eventually filtered out by the kidneys or intestines. The damage that these UFPs can do to our body is very real. In fetuses and young children, exposure to UFPs increases the likelihood of developing asthma.
UFPs can increase blood pressure, adding fuel to the fire of cardiovascular health issues that millions of Americans suffer from each year. Short-term exposure to UFPs is linked to symptoms such as headaches, inflammation, and respiratory irritation. Long-term exposure is linked to increased risks of health complications like heart disease, lung disease, liver cancer, brain tumors, and strokes. The symptoms are comparable to those from cigarette smoke but with less severity.
While 3-D printers are particularly egregious due to prolonged printing sessions, they aren't the only offenders in the home. Surpassing the reported maximum 2.8 trillion UFPs per minute from 3-D printers, one study found that the average emission rate of candles was 4.7 trillion UFPs per minute. However, cooking is the most common source of UFPs in the home.
One study found that a gas stove produced 260 billion UFPs per minute by itself, and this increased to 5.8 trillion UFPs when heating an empty pan. When the researchers threw tofu into the pan this increased once again, all the way to 10 trillion UFPs. Understandably, when opting to boil instead of frying the tofu, the emission rate decreased to 530 billion UFPs per minute.
A different study found that cooking beef in a pan on an electric burner produced 9.4 trillion UFPs per minute, which is similar to the tofu on the gas stove.
While cooking is just as bad and, in some cases, worse than 3-D printers, the duration of cooking is comparably short, and it is very common for people to use the stove's ventilation hood, which will remove a percentage of the emissions. Another example of short-term UFP generation comes from laser printers that produce between 340 million and 1.6 trillion UFPs per minute, with the most common particle size being 34 nanometers.
I bring these examples up to provide a reference point for 3-D printers and to provide some insight for where you should focus your attention to improve indoor air quality, and thankfully, doing so is pretty straight forward.
The best way to improve your indoor air quality is to eliminate the source of emissions. In the case of 3-D printers, that means moving them out of the house and into the garage. For candles, this would be switching to an LED version, which may be kind of lame but it works.
The next best option is substituting the source. In the case of FDM printers, you can opt to use PLA instead of say ABS. For cooking, consider boiling instead of frying. For candles, consider using beeswax or soy instead of paraffin wax.
Then we move on to how we can use ventilation or filtration. For resin printers, having them outside the home is the safest place, but if indoors is the only option then active ventilation is our friend. You can watch my previous video if you would like to learn more about ventilation. For FDM printers, we can use ventilation, but this can be tricky if we want a heated chamber to prevent warping or delamination.
A heated chamber is one situation where filtration shines. Smaller particulate filters can be placed inside and on an enclosure, or you can have a larger air cleaner in the room. Filtration would also be a good idea for bedrooms, kitchens, and areas where other UFP sources are present.
HEPA filters are extremely effective at capturing ultra-fine particles, boasting efficiencies upwards of 99% per pass, while MERV 13 to 16 filters provide a more affordable option to move large amounts of air in a room and capture 60 to 95% per pass.
It is common to see MERV filters attached to a box fan. With a box fan, the MERV panels that are 4 inches thick or contain bags will have a higher flow rate, are typically more cost efficient, and have a higher holding capacity than your typical 1-inch panel. You will not find thicker MERV filters or bag filters in stores, but they are easy to find online.
The next consideration is how long are you in proximity to the 3-D printer? If the 3-D printer is in your bedroom or office space where you spend a sizeable portion of your time, consider moving it to an isolated room. Additionally, determine how you can mitigate exposure of children to 3-D printer emissions, especially with resin. The cooking comparison for this would be throwing a tasty lasagna in the oven, turning on the vent, and walking away. This provides less exposure than hovering over the frying pan.
The last consideration is PPE or personal protection equipment. With resin printers, it's highly recommended to use a respirator, gloves, clothing protection, and eye protection, especially while cleaning parts that can end up flying. For FDM printers, a respirator doesn't make as much sense if you already have ventilation or filtration. An exception to this could be a large print farm. For cooking, I suppose you could argue that an apron is good PPE to prevent pasta stains.
Wearing a respirator while cooking would be a tad out of hand. Your guests might think you're cooking up something else entirely!
To round everything out, we learned the basics of ultra-fine particles, where they come from, how they impact our health, and explored a few ways to avoid them. While having 3-D printers inside the home is convenient, they can negatively impact indoor air quality. In an ideal world, we would all have our own dedicated workspace in a garage or workshop for our gadgets and creations.
For indoor users, consider your options such as using an isolated room, ventilation, filtration, the material being printed, and what PPE makes sense.
Check the description below to find the studies mentioned in this video. I will also link a variety of helpful resources on indoor air quality, UFPs, and a few of the products to mitigate these airborne particles. As always, if you have any questions in the comments, I will do my best to answer them.
Thanks for watching guys and gals – Aris Alder out!