How Bad is Resin 3D Printing for Air Quality?

DesignSpark sent me one of their Air Quality IoT kits to beta test and I decided to test in on 3D printing resins to see just how bad they are.

@DesignSparkRS developed the *Environmental Sensor Development Kit* (ESDK) as an open source hardware platform with the ability to add sensors to suit your project needs. The brains of the ESDK consists of a main board with touch screen and GPS that connects to a Raspberry Pi Linux computer. DesignSpark’s Air Quality Project is the first to utilise the ESDK’s compact and modular architecture that allows plug and play for sensors (no soldering and coding is optional).

I deployed the kit in my workshop where I have resin and FDM 3D printers as well as the associated materials and chemicals. I decided to target the effects of resin 3D printing on air quality as it is the ‘smellier’ operation and it personally concerns me more than FDM. Resin 3D printing utilises photopolymer resin to build up prints in layers and in my case, isopropyl alcohol is used to clean the finished prints. Resins and IPA are typically loaded with volatile organic compounds, so the TVOC board should be ideal to monitor that. I decided to test three different resin types and measure whether there are any differences in the TVOCs present in the workshop.

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0:00 Intro
0:21 DesignSpark ESDK Kit
1:06 Design and Build
2:13 Kit Functions
2:50 DesignSpark Metric Dashboard
3:04 What are VOCs?
3:46 Testing the VOC Sensor
3:58 Setting up the Experiment
4:39 Resins and Air Quality
5:56 What about the Wash?
6:24 What does this Mean?

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#3dprinting #resin #airquality

[electrosync]

I’m a big adVOCate for staying safe and preventing haVOC when 3D printing!

[dinok]

The 3D printing community needs more valuable content like this!

Please do a follow up including traditional fdm printers that have no enclosures

You’re the best!

[CATASTEROID]

The issue is that not all VOCs are born equal and the sensor can't really tell the difference beyond whether the fumes create a reducing or oxidising atmosphere, volatile substances like toluene, xylene or formaldehyde and other such organic hydrocarbons are going to be harsher than others like ethanol.

[allan]

Would love to see a followup that checks the voc index with the stock filter, with one of the small branded aftermarket filters, and a beefy activated carbon air purifier like the Austin Air Healthmate Plus.

[redstefan]

next time please also test the effectiveness of the filter by testing both filtered and unfiltered prints, who knows maybe the filter makesa huge difference, maybe it barely makes one at all, either way it would be really Interesting to find out

[norgtube]

Your breaking bad gear won't help much unless your respirator's rated for VoC (like a 3M 6098 or 6099).

[l.a.wright]

Did you consider that the vocs were caused by the open uncured resin?

Uncredited resin gives off fumes much more than cured resin and possibly even curing resin.

Given the spike for your washing was the same it seems like a likely culprit.

It could be that ignoring the fan printing resin gives off next to no fumes. But the open container itself does.

[john_barnett]

as a person who resin prints, thank you! subscribed for sure

[DouglasFish]

Your videos are really well done, only 6.15k subscribers?!

[Slushee]

Grafana is so cool! Probably the next thing I'm going to try to host in docker

[sevithan]

I got a question, did you have any dedicated ventilation for the printer for this experiment? I'm wondering what the VOC levels would be like if the printer was in an enclosure with a fan venting to the outside. And perhaps also to see if carbon filters/air purifiers make a difference, and if both filters and ventilation combined can keep VOCs low.

[BobertSands]

Thanks for the video, it would have been really useful though to see the index levels 1 hour after print finished to see how long the VOC linger after opening the lid

[brooke]

I've been wanting to get into 3d printing but I am concerned about what I may be breathing in.

[secretagb]

I'm definitely on board with seeing some automated ventilation/air cleaning. Right now I run one of those large multi-room air filtration units in my print space. I don't have any monitored data yet, but it has active carbon and 0.3micron filtration. Which should hold well to cleansing the air of VOCs from the resin and some filaments while also nabbing a good amount of the nanoparticles from filaments without VOC. Either way..I should probably get some better sensor data.

[JudePullen]

Loved the video! Nice BB setup also xD

[NicksStuff]

What were the results WITH the filter?
Also, you have no idea if these VOCs are harmful or not...

[linyongzheng]

Would love to see how well a plasma filterless air purifiers would reduce VOCs.

Slightly pedantic: those aren't heat set inserts, those are screw-to-expand inserts. They are more similar to dry wall anchors and just are supposed to expand and bite into the walls of the plastic hole instead of melting them into the plastic. Though, anecdotally, using them as intended in 3D printed parts isn't very effective.

[MrRyteByte]

Where can I purchase one of these ESDK kits? I followed the various links provided, but still have no clue how to purchase the kit.

[theglowcloud]

I worry enough about FDM printing, even with HEPA filtration. I don't think people realize how toxic SLA printing is, both handling the resin and the VOCs from curing it.

[Serpreme]

Other then an increase in VOC means more VOC, what is the guidance of acceptable levels of VOCs and the like?