Toxic? Where to put printer?

#49

Hi James,

You may want to consider where your FDM printers are located in relation to the Form 2. As others have identified, the Form 2’s greatest enemy is dust!!

My own thoughts were originally that all the printers could live happily together, the reality is that after a period of use of the FDM printers then there was noticeable dust in the workshop. After reading the article in the link below we have now put each FDM printer into its own air filtered cabinet, that cut the dust down dramatically. Its also hopefully helped everyone live a little longer!!

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.5b04983

#50

It’s pretty shocking considering that young adults and kids have these 300 dollar FDM machines in their bedrooms and living room and how little warnings are given out about the dangers.

#51

I totally agree

#52

I’m wondering though if that counts fumes while it’s printing or just if you open the bottle and inhale… Certainly there’s a difference and the MSDS of the materials would be for fumes of the material without being printed.

#53

From my experience here in the office, the only time I can really smell it at all is when a bottle is open. I’m currently working in a space with probably 70 printers and I don’t smell any resin at all, nor have we had any issues with anyone getting dizzy or anything like that.

#54

that is because you destroy your receptors in nose with IPA :joy::joy::joy::joy::laughing::laughing:
No really I moved my printer to office and IPA is in other office room that is not using and its well ventilated. I red that IPA is bad for nose receptors, head hurt, dizziness and stuff like that, Is it really that bad because it is type of alcohol? I smell Jegermaister :smiley: Also red something abut resin but there is my link up there I posted year ago

#55

@Komy do you have a source showing IPA destroys smell receptors? I’m not disagreeing with you, I’m just interested (as always) in reading more literature on the topic.

#56

I think I red somewhere on forum, but here is couple links from wikipedia and some other link. When you read literature on this topic please inform us about conclusion you made :slight_smile:

#57

I don’t see anything in the Wikipedia article specific to smell receptor degradation. It mentions several other symptoms of poisoning of course (e.g. respiratory irritation, skin irritant, visual / hearing problems, headache, nausea, vomiting, coma), but not that one. I skimmed the other link - didn’t read through the whole thing but didn’t find any mention there, either.

I know someone who lost their sense of smell from chemicals, but I don’t think IPA was one of them.

#58

I have a Form 3 and I seem to have no smell using Grey or Clear Resin.
There is a very strong smell from the alcohol so I try to have the Form Wash open for as little time as possible.

#59

C/P from the same question on another thread:

I’m not a big poster but thought I’d add something. I’m the lead AME for a $12B engineering company and our Health & Safety Engineering team is extremely stringent on chemicals and safety. A full panel chem review was conducted on our print lab which runs a multitude of printers 24/7 producing thousands of parts a year; this included a 24 hour test of chemical/vapor emissions, a noise study, and an in depth analysis on every MSDS sheet on every Formlabs resin. With every printer in our lab running everything was given the full go ahead with no fume hoods or vapor extraction required. Just a normal room with A/C and no opening windows.

If that HSE team certified it to acceptable standards I’d imagine your personal Form 2’s or 3’s will be just fine.

EDIT: I should also add that the only PPE that was required based on this assessment are gloves for handling tanks/cartridges/IPA soaked parts and goggles when we make custom Formlabs resin blends in our mixing room (Last week we made a translucent red that glows in the dark with properties simulating ABS).

EDIT 2: For the sake of thoroughness I should also add that the only fume extraction requirement we have in the print labs is a fume hood over our IPA stations but that requirements exists company wide anywhere IPA is used. That is not tied to the Form Wash being unsafe just that IPA in general is a chemical that we required fume extraction for.

#60

The biggest issue I’ve had is that inevitably the resin gets on nearby surfaces. It is seemingly impossible to prevent, so a guest bedroom may be an issue as far as surfaces getting the resin on them (a tiny drop gets a fair amount of counter icky). The resin isn’t toxic in the cyanide sense, but can produce an impressive skin reaction once you are sensitive to it (repeated touches). It was way worse with my older mSLA printer than the form 3 and wash station. It’s often from a drip when moving the build platform to the wash. And while you wear gloves, then you accidentally touch a counter leaving a resin fingerprint…

#61

All my surfaces are covered with polythene sheets which can be replace when necessary.

#62

OMG, are you my great aunt? Now I know why all the couches were covered in plastic, she was really secretly into SLA printing!

or

#63

told you I think I red somewhere on forum

#64

The box it came in can act as an enclosure. Just place the printer on the floor and the box over the top of the printer when in use. Seal the holes in the box with some tape.

This is my temporary solution while i have this printer at home during the pandemic.

#66

It’s pretty nasty, and some resins are worse than others. I’ve found the elastic to be unbearable, while the clear isn’t that big of deal.

It’s fine to visit it, but you’ll want to create at least a little bit of exhaust ventilation from the room its in. If you have something like a laundry room with an exhaust fan, that would be ideal. Make up a solution based on your available spaces, but you don’t want to sleep with the fumes!

#67

I keep my Form 2 in a small room with my AeraMax air purifier turned on.
So no dust, no smell, everything is fine.

#68

The resin is toxic to some degree and it’s not advisable to be in long contact with it - nobody can predict what will happen if you’re exposed on the fumes for long period of time. Plus - the resin smells bad.

Personally I placed my Form3 into a cabinet (single section wardrobe from IKEA), drilled a hole on top and placed weak air extraction (get standard 15W/220V extraction fan and place 330nF/630V capacitor in series with the fan to reduce the speed). The air extraction is taking the air from wardrobe out from the room through air corrugated aluminium pipe like this one:

This solution guarantees no smells from the resin in the surrounding area.

Keeping the printer in dark, sealed cabinet also prolongs the life of the resin:

  1. Prevents from dust
  2. Prevents from UV light - some UV light penetrates the printer cover and can semi cure the resin (this is well visible if you keep the printer next door to windows or under direct sunlight).
#69

There is so much bogus info. going around about the toxicity of photopolymer resin that it’s a wonder we haven’t all turned green and croaked.

My advice is to download the MSDS for each resin you print and read it.

From what I’ve learned doing so… it can cause redness and irritation of the skin and if your sensitive to it, it can actually cause a rash. If you drink it on a regular basis, it can cause birth defects in your offspring.

So my take away…

  1. ware gloves
  2. don’t drink it
  3. if the smell bothers me, I open a window.

That said, we cover the unit with a box turned upside down when not in use… primarily to shut out all light and preserve the resin in the build tank.