Methods for dealing with ABS off-gassing
Hello! We print ABS continuously night and day on our 5-year-old, awesome Prusa i3 MK2 - it's been such a great machine! Unfortunately, the room we use for printing is heavy with ABS off-gassing smell, which I know is a health concern. We try and leave a window cracked, but that doesn't work very well. I've tried running an air purifier in the room, but that didn't seem to have any effect. Any ideas that anyone can offer for dealing with this? I have a makeshift enclosure that isn't sealed, but keeps the printer temperature consistent and makes for great prints. If I were to seal the enclosure up and draw air through it with a fan (input and output filters), would some sort of charcoal filter on the outlet take care of the problem? Is this anything that the new Prusa enclosure could help with? I'm planning on buying a new printer or multiple printers for our business, so I want to get a good solutions for this ABS off-gassing issue. Any ideas or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Jon
RE: Methods for dealing with ABS off-gassing
I read more on other threads on similar topics. I'm attracted to the idea of venting instead of trying to filter, but concerned about very cold outside temperatures during the winter. Any info on venting systems people have created would be appreciated too. Thanks!
RE: Methods for dealing with ABS off-gassing
I have the printers in the home office, which does not have exterior windows. Only ventilation is the forced air HVAC, which is often shut off at the register for that room.
I print ABS semi-frequently, and although the odor is noticeable in the office when ABS is printing, it's not discernible in the main part of the house.
The Prusa is in an enclosure with an intermittent fan for temperature control but no filtration.
There is a passageway with a guest 1/2 bath that leads into the main part of the house, and for a while I made it a habit to turn on the exhaust ventilator there to give a slight negative pressure to the area, but lately I have not been doing it.
RE: Methods for dealing with ABS off-gassing
I find it is best to have the printer in a room with a range hood or bathroom vent. My home also has fresh air makeup / forced ventilation built into the furnace so I like to run the furnace fan when printing ABS. Of course one must avoid drafts from the registers or the ABS will warp right off the bed. Printing with a Draft Shield helps a lot, as does choice of bed material.
Some ABS types stink worse than others, but maybe the stinky stuff is safer because you can smell and thus avoid the fumes.
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RE: Methods for dealing with ABS off-gassing
I only ran my Prusa with ABS long enough to build my Voron which now does all my ABS printing. For the Mini I just had it in a box and the filament I used doesn't stink too much (Push Plastic & Sparta 3D). On the Voron, it's meant for ABS so is self-enclosed but not airtight sealed. I've added a mod that runs fans which circulate the chamber air through activated charcoal; this helps bump chamber temps up and does some filtering of VOCs during printing and on cool down. I'd probably look into a similar setup for during printing, then run an exhaust fan to outside after the print is done.
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