Aerosols in 3D Printing - Measurement of Emissions and Estimation of Body Deposition

As 3d printers become more and more popular, there have been many concerns about the hazards. We aimed to evaluate the emission of ultrafine particles (UFP) during fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing according to the filament types and temperature and to estimate the dose of UFP in the respiratory tract. The emission rates of UFP during 3D printing was evaluated using a direct-reading instrument (scanning mobility particle sizers and optical particle spectrometer) in a well-designed dynamic chamber. A total of six filament materials (ABS, PLA, PVA, Laywood, HIPS, and Nylon) were tested at the manufacturer-recommended temperature and gradual increasing conditions. The deposited dose at the head air way (HA), the tracheobronchial region (TB), and the alveolar region (AL), was estimated using the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) model The filaments were classified as high emitter (>1011 #/min) which included HIPS and nylon, medium emitters (109#/min −1011 #/min) included ABS 1 and ABS2, and low emitters (<109 #/min) included PVA and PLA based on UFP emissions. The emission rate increased gradually as the temperature increased. Both filament type and temperature were the key factors affecting the emission rate. For all filament types, the particles between 10 nm and 1um occupied a large portion and the proportion of UFP was dominated. The deposited particles in the alveolar region had larger proportions from 23 to 44% to total inhaled doses than in other regions. More than 5.8x108 particles/kgbw/g (about 40%) released from the high emitter were estimated to be deposited, while about 2.0x106 particles/kgbw/g (27% of inhaled dose) from the low emitter can be deposited at alveolar region. The emission rate of UFP were different between printing materials and temperature. Modeled estimates of UFP smaller than 1 μm had a large proportion to deposited dose at each respiratory region. 3D printer