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Airborne particle emission of a commercial 3D printer: the effect of filament material and printing temperature
Author(s) -
Stabile L.,
Scungio M.,
Buonanno G.,
Arpino F.,
Ficco G.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
indoor air
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1600-0668
pISSN - 0905-6947
DOI - 10.1111/ina.12310
Subject(s) - 3d printer , protein filament , particle (ecology) , 3d printing , fused filament fabrication , energetic material , materials science , nuclear engineering , environmental science , composite material , nanotechnology , mechanical engineering , engineering , chemistry , geology , oceanography , organic chemistry , explosive material
Abstract The knowledge of exposure to the airborne particle emitted from three‐dimensional (3D) printing activities is becoming a crucial issue due to the relevant spreading of such devices in recent years. To this end, a low‐cost desktop 3D printer based on fused deposition modeling (FDM) principle was used. Particle number, alveolar‐deposited surface area, and mass concentrations were measured continuously during printing processes to evaluate particle emission rates ( ER s) and factors. Particle number distribution measurements were also performed to characterize the size of the emitted particles. Ten different materials and different extrusion temperatures were considered in the survey. Results showed that all the investigated materials emit particles in the ultrafine range (with a mode in the 10–30‐nm range), whereas no emission of super‐micron particles was detected for all the materials under investigation. The emission was affected strongly by the extrusion temperature. In fact, the ERs increase as the extrusion temperature increases. Emission rates up to 1×10 12 particles min −1 were calculated. Such high ERs were estimated to cause large alveolar surface area dose in workers when 3D activities run. In fact, a 40‐min‐long 3D printing was found to cause doses up to 200 mm 2 .