Emissions of Volatile Compounds and Solids during Additive Manufacturing by the FFF Method

Abstract

The rapid development of the additive manufacturing industry is a great opportunity both for the development of the industry in the context of rapid prototyping and for hobbyists using 3D printers at home. At the same time, such a rapid technological development poses a significant challenge for specialists dealing with sources of pollutant emissions to the environment as well as for Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) specialists dealing with the assessment of chemical hazards in the workplace. In this article, the authors demonstrate the legitimacy of the concern regarding issues relating to emissions from the 3D printing process, in particular FFF (fused filament fabrication). We carried out tests on the emission of volatile organic compounds from the printer chamber and compared them with the results of analyses conducted for the same materials in laboratory conditions by heating in a vial. They showed that the spectrometric analysis differed in both cases, which proved a clear influence of the parameters of additive manufacturing on both the amount and type of the emitted substances. The article also presents the sizes and shapes of the solid particles emitted during the process and aggregated during pollutant analyses.