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Particle Emissions from Fused Deposition Modeling 3D Printers: Evaluation and Meta-Analysis
Citation:
Byrley, P., BJ George, W. Boyes, AND K. Rogers. Particle Emissions from Fused Deposition Modeling 3D Printers: Evaluation and Meta-Analysis. 2018 NCSOT Annual Meeting, Research Triangle Park, NC, October 15, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Fused deposition modeling 3D printers, the most popular choice among home hobbyists, have been shown to release volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) and billions of airborne particles per minute, indicating the potential for consumer inhalation exposure and consequent health risks. Inhaled ultrafine particles have been linked to a variety of health effects including increased oxidative stress, inflammation, cardiovascular effects and cytotoxicity (Madl et al., 2009; Stefaniak et al., 2017). VOCs may contribute to the development of asthma, allergies, obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer with styrene classified as a known carcinogen (Gałęzowska et al., 2016; Lee et al., 2006). Publications on FDM 3D printer emissions; however, contain large heterogeneity of testing methods and analytical procedures making it difficult to reach overall conclusions from particle characteristics or particle number emission rates across the field.
Description:
Fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printers, the most popular choice among home hobbyists, have been shown to release volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) and billions of airborne particles per minute, indicating the potential for consumer inhalation exposure and consequent health risks. Publications on FDM 3D printer emissions; however, contain large heterogeneity of testing methods and analytical procedure making it difficult to reach overall conclusions from particle characteristics. Data were collected over the printing time from 3D printer emission studies including mean particle count diameter (PCDs) (nanometers), mode PCDs, mean particle number concentration (PNCs) (particles/cm3), peak PNCs, mean particle number emission rates (PNERs) (particles/min), and peak PNERs. These data were sought to describe particle emissions across publications and to determine if two popular filament materials, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and poly-lactic acid (PLA) differed in the PCDs and PNCs of particles emitted. In addition, a mixed linear model was fitted for mean PNCs to further explore the impact of nozzle temperature and filament material. Despite heterogeneity in methods, the majority of particles released were ultrafine in size (i.e., <100 nm) indicating that using both ABS and PLA may present a risk of inhalation of ultrafine particles. There was a difference of 8.1 nm between the mean PCDs of ABS and PLA, but this difference was not considered to alter substantially the risks of particle inhalation exposure between filaments. Mean PNC emitted in 3D printing tests ranged over several orders of magnitude across publications with overall means of 300,980 particles/cm3 for ABS and 65,482 particles/cm3 for PLA. The mixed linear model for mean PNC suggests association with filament and the difference (235,498 particles/cm3) in overall means to be substantive after adjusting for nozzle temperature. Although mean PNC data were available from only 7 of the 16 papers reviewed, ABS use may result in greater particle number exposure risk than PLA.
