UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01  

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

You can't cut down a HEPA filter - doing that ruins it;  and most HEPA filters do ZERO for VOC's ...

So you MUST buy a replacement from Kora or that fancy filtration system is just a fan.

And the cost of their replacement x2 is the MONTHLY operating cost of this thing, in addition to an outrageous initial cost.

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

Posted by: nick.b16

I then found this Printer enclousure https://www.kora3d.com/sc-01-3d-printer-safety-cabinet#description .

The design is UK Gov HSE approved. i've not seen that on a enclosure before?

And - despite your claim it is UK approved ... I see no certifications whatsoever this cabinet is approved by any UK authority for anything.  Not even electrical safety.  The CE mark?  The marking does not indicate EEA manufacture or that the EU or another authority has approved a product as safe or conformant.  Rather, the maker claims it is.  The power supply is claimed to be UL, but not the cabinet.  It has no fire safety cert, not electrical safety cert.  Not exactly what anyone would buy for a school for kids to use... as for the cert it meets the gas measurement process?  Well, that 1093 only means that process was used to test "something" ... but has nothing to do with certification... lol.  And the cabinet itself doesn't emit gases, so the test is rather meaningless. 

And if in the end a simple HEPA filter is all that is needed --- you can buy HEPA filters with charcoal for pretty cheap and fit them to your $50 LACK system.

Sorry - scams like this cause my blood to boil.

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

Not passing my sniff test. 

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

A smallish fire extinguisher - no switch to turn off the exhaust fan - so the canister blasts for a few seconds into the airflow being sucked up and out - meanwhile the hot end is still producing heat and flames - masterful design.  And the seriously funny part?  The dry powder inside only exits when the unit is inverted, spray end down; as installed in this "safe" enclosure, the extinguisher may not even function.

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

If anyone has ever used a dry power extinguisher - you already know that anything hot that the powder hits is ruined and is no longer usable.  So the extinguisher - if it activates - virtually guarantees anything inside the enclosure is trash. And that once the extinguisher is empty, the power will still be on, the printer will still be heating and extruding fresh filament, and the fire will continue... unabated. 

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

The Building Environment Research Group researched the first study in 2013. After the media got ahold of it then it was everywhere.
http://built-envi.com/portfolio/ultrafine-particle-emissions-from-3d-printers/

The studies that were released on 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 all had issues with their methodologies for testing when looked at by actual scientists that study VOC's. The primary issue being how small the area was versus an open room with good ventilation.

Everyday pollutants inside buildings are more harmful than 3D printers when you are printing PETG and PLA. The major complaint has always been with ABS. ABS breaks down into 27 chemical compounds during combustion. 

The topics of HEPA and Carbon filters being used in enclosures is covered here:
https://molekule.com/blog/the-best-air-purifier-for-3d-printer-fumes-and-other-pollutants/

Summary: HEPA filters can't catch everything only larger particles and Carbon filters will fill up and re-emit whatever they catch and you have to buy more of them when they fill up.

Some of this is also mentioned by the NIOSH respirator studies: https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2011/12/07/resp-nano/

Printed Solid actually responded to the issue of HEPA filters being used with their enclosures.
https://www.printedsolid.com/blogs/news/why-you-won-t-find-a-hepa-filter-hanging-on-the-back-of-our-enclosures

Sound levels are obviously a problem when you have more than 10 printers going that don't have silent steppers.

From the description it sounded like they were filtering using a fume extractor which is always better than nothing.
I would think it would affect your prints and temps.

There are literally a ton of fume extractors that are being advertised for 3D printing.

https://www.zimple3d.com/zimpure/

https://bofainternational.com/us/find-products/extraction-systems/results/?industry=3d-printing#advanced-system-search
 
You could also 3D print this: https://all3dp.com/1/weekend-project-3d-printed-air-purifier-to-reduce-abs-smell-and-harmful-vocs/

There are kits like this that are way cheaper and you can add whatever you want.

3DUPFITTERS
https://www.3dupfitters.com/products/prusa-acrylic-enclosure-kit

It's not hard to add a fire suppressant ball to the top of an enclosure to prevent fires. This has been talk about at length in the FB groups and on Reddit.

3D Printer Fire Suppression via Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/6cgft0/alright_lets_talk_3d_printer_fire_prevention/

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

Well, i've built my SC-01 enclosure and here is my eval.

I purchased te SC-01 with the optional fire suppression extinguisher, LCD lights and Smoke alarm. I obtaind a 10% discount and have already given the discount code in my first post. if you want to use feel free to do so, if not that's all the same.

The unit arrived quickly for me, I live in the East Midlands, UK, and they only sent it from Leeds, UK,  which is not to far and arrived the next day. The SC-01 came in a flat packed box, tied by plastic straps, the packering was good. and it came in a srong box.

However the weight caught me a little of guard, weighing 50 KG!

Opening the box and removing the content I had to clear some space on my  desk , this was where i was going to place it and it was better to build in place. I don;t think a single person could lift as it was larger then i thought. I  took the rear steel  back panel  which has a tear cut at the bottom left so you can feed wires into the unit.

This was the first design fault in the unit, it would be better if it had another tear drop cut out on the rightside as well this will make it easier to place you printer regardless of which side you have power supply on your printer.

The enclosure is bigger than i thought, like I mentioned ealier and you can place a MK2, MK3, MK3s with the spool attached or MMU, MMU2 on the frame and still have a good clearance on top and all around the enclosure. If you have the MMU, then you will have to drill some holes on either side of the roof where the Hepa filter to place the PFTP tube though. However looking at the space round the enclosure once the p[rinter is inside with a little modification, i think you have enough space to keep the filament inside the enclosure, namely remove the printer LCD and extend the LCD cable and move the LCD to front of the enclosure and outside the enclosure. I will try this when I upgrade my MK3s and buy the MMU2s.

The build itself took me about 2 hours, which is not bad. The instruction come on  multiple stapled A4 paper. Each step of the build is shown with two pictures, the first shows you what you need to gather together and dotted lines indicating where things like screws go and the second picture shows that step when completed. This is good, but a little written instruction would be nice as you only have pictures and a list of

Anothr fault I found was the screws come in two bage, no label on them, the bags contained mix screw sizes which were similar in size, so it took me time to know which screw size i need for which step. This can be easily fixed, just add the screws into smll bags and have a label on the bag

I will upload some pictures showing the SC-01 in place and what it looks like witha Prusa MK3s .

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

I  took the rear steel  back panel  which has a tear cut at the bottom left so you can feed wires into the unit.

Electrical wires go through a cut out section of steel?

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

Hi, the panel has a cut outand a PETG part is screwed on the outside to cover the hole. This has a small cutout  to feed the wire into to the enclosure. I did write nd edit but the time ran out and it did not update my post. I have attched jpeg but i don't know how to attach into the post. I see the section saying Source

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

I visited Kora today, the staff were very pleasant and helpful, they had a selection of enclosures and stands in their demonstration room, they showed a friend and I the SCo1, that has been the subject of this thread.

I visited as an interested party, I have no professional qualifications directly relating to this subject, but have reasonable experience in equipment housing and aerosol / particulate sensing and capture for environmental pollution analysis 

on first sight the SCo1 looks large, the door is fully framed in steel, there are two apparently sturdy hinges on one side and a low security Cam  lock on the other side. the key doubles as a handle.

the clear door panel is cut to allow insertion of a digital thermometer display unit, which comes as part of the package,  the door is quite large and opens to the front, it appears to have lift off hinges which may reduce the risk of somebody walking past and catching the door while it is open, there is no restraint to limit door movement, and it appears as if the door will open about 180 degrees.

Lifting a prusa mk3 in and out, with the spool holder attached, is no problem, there is plenty of room for the bed to move  backwards and forwards and the door opening allows relatively good access for day to day use. there is a gap under the door to allow ingress of air

there is nothing to prevent the printer being pushed backwards in the enclosure, by a young or inexperienced user, this could result in the heatbed cable bundle colliding with the back panel and causing early failure, or worst case preventing full Y axis movement, side to side movement is also unconstrained and may cause friction on the ends of the  axis assemble, scraping against the side windows.

the whole case stands on four circular plastic feet, which have additional nuts and wing nuts to allow levelling on uneven surfaces.

All of the metalwork has a black surface finish.

There is no earth bonding on the cabinet components

the mains access hole in the metal back panel,  is covered, on the outside, by a fixed plastic panel that I estimate to be 3 or 4mm thick, and closed with a swinging plastic panel to allow insertion of the mains cable, there is no cable restraint, no grommet and the mains cable rests on what appears to be laser cut edges on the lower plastic panel. the plastic side windows are framed on three sides with fixing screws at regular intervals, and the lower  egde has a gap of about 6mm along the bottom,  either side of a central fixing tab, which is retained by a single, central, nut and bolt
extra's include LED light bars, self contained audible temperature alarm and a fire extinguisher, there is also an optional heater unit which I did not see

I did not notice any cable management for the lights and fan power cables.

the filter is a maintenance  exchange part, housed in a steel case approx 250mm square by 50mm tall, there is an integrated blower fan within the fan housing which exhausts through one of the sides of the filter housing, ( usually the back), the filter is advised as HEPA H13 standard, it is fronted by a thin foam sheet, there is a Bulkhead DC connector on the side of the filter houfing for connecting a Laptop style concentric power plug,  there is no provision for flow monitoring on the filter unit, and no pressure differential monitoring,  nor is there a run time monitor on the filter module, I believe the filter is recommended to be changed every 400 printing hours or 12 months. 400 hours may be difficult to monitor, especially in a shared user environment, lack of monitoring could lead to the filter being replaced too early, causing additional expense, or too late, negating the expected benefits of the enclosure.

filter replacements are currently £130.00 with a £30.00 refund when the old filter module is returned.

the front door carries a logo, stating that it has been tested by health and safety laboratory. as the logo is displayed, we have to believe the enclosure passed the agreed tests, but there is no obvious indication on the housing as to what those tests were

the manufacturers information states that it has been tested to BSI standards, but I didn't notice any Kite Marks to confirm that the standards had been met.

the optional dry powder fire extinguisher is BSI approved and  Kite marked rated for use on class A,B and C fires

the suppliers have not discharged a fire extinguisher with a printer inside the chamber and did not clarify whether a discharge test had been completed with an empty enclosure.

bearing in mind the construction of the enclosure I would be concerned about it's capability to maintain integrity in the event of an extinguisher discharge, the door is only retained by the tab of a camlock, and the side panels are flexible plastic,  retained at the bottom, by a narrow tab of plastic with a bolt through it all sides have significant area, if the apertures in the enclosure are unable to adequately dissipate the discharge, internal pressure may be enough to burst the enclosure at one of the weak points.

there is no power disconnect in event of fire.

Having seen the enclosure first hand, I would not buy one in it's current state. 

1, The unique selling point is reduction of pollution by air filtration, but the filtration performance is not automatically  monitored, even an elapsed time indicator would be better than nothing.
2, positive location of the printer inside the enclosure would preclude early failure and sub optimal performance from open frame printers such as the prusa i3

3, a cable clamp or at the very least a grommet on the mains cable entry, and some form of cable restraint would prevent early failure of the mins cable sheath, and prevent cable strain on the printer power connector.

4, integrated power shut down and fire detection / extinguishing capabilities, with a single shot fire extinguisher, leaving the power active on a defective printer, is asking for a secondary fire, with no further protection. 

5, earth bonding should be applied because there are unrestrained mains powered items inside the metal enclosure.

6, the filter cost seems excessive, I would like to see a lower cost removable filter element integrated with real time airflow management to demonstrate the continued  performance of the filter and notify of approaching need to replace the filter.

7, I would like to see integrated cable management for the enclosure power feeds with an accessible power shutdown control on the outside of the enclosure, (perhaps break glass style to prevent tampering)

 these are My observations, I hope they help demystify the SC01

8, I would like to see the fire extinguisher and heat alarm swapped over, so that the text on the extinguisher was the right way up!

regards  Joan

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

Thanks! Joan. Great reporting.

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

Fantastic review.  I am seriously considering one.

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

 £130.00 every two weeks .... wonderful. 

Having seen the enclosure first hand, I would not buy one in it's current state. 

Thanks for confirming my worst fears, Joan.

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

Awesome review @joantabb, thanks!

Still haven't heard anything further from @nick-b16.

@tim-m30, are you running your printer 24/7?

There's also the question of since this is an enclosure, leaving the printer PSU and Einsy in the enclosure will cause shorter lifespan, correct?

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

No - I do not print 24/7 by 365.  But 12 hour prints are common, and 60 hour prints are not rare; the $130 filter is rated about 400 hours.   It's simple math.  Just one of the reasons the enclosure listed here is not something I'd even consider.  Just too many red flags.

As for printer reliability, most of the electronic components on the printer are rated for operation in excess of 50c.  Life expectancy shouldn't drop too far by printing inside an enclosure.  It is known that at 25c ambient the Einsy components can over heat when firmware forces too much motor drive current; so a fan to cool the Einsy board when inside an enclosure is probably a good idea.  The other weak link is the LCD ... vitreous glass seals don't like temperature change.

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

Posted by: @tim-m30

No - I do not print 24/7 by 365.  But 12 hour prints are common, and 60 hour prints are not rare; the $130 filter is rated about 400 hours.   It's simple math.  Just one of the reasons the enclosure listed here is not something I'd even consider.  Just too many red flags.

As for printer reliability, most of the electronic components on the printer are rated for operation in excess of 50c.  Life expectancy shouldn't drop too far by printing inside an enclosure.  It is known that at 25c ambient the Einsy components can over heat when firmware forces too much motor drive current; so a fan to cool the Einsy board when inside an enclosure is probably a good idea.  The other weak link is the LCD ... vitreous glass seals don't like temperature change.

I do agree that $130 for a filter is ridiculous, but what I've heard is it's rated for 400 print hours, not life hours. So, if you don't print 24/7 I don't understand why you're thinking you'd have to replace it every two weeks.

From @joantabb's review the enclosure is definitely not ready for primetime. Plus, I'd rather go at building what @nikolai-r mentioned, https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/original-prusa-i3-mk3s-mk3-improvements-archive/smart-3d-printing-enclosure/ .

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

400 hours ... lol ... you need to do the math.   That filter adds dollars to every print.   Do you really think adding $4 cost to every 12 hour print is reasonable?  

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

Or, looking at my printer stats, 89 days of print time over that past few months (since 3.7.1 release).  That's 2136 hours, or 5.3 filters, or $630 worth, since June of this year. 

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

@jadedreddragon

hi, sorry for the delay in replying just been busy on work life. Now to the review by Joan. I was impressed thatshetook the tome tp visit the vendor and see up close and personal. That gives you a perspective that a picture does not give. While Joan makes some keen observation as a lot of you  have. I do disagree on some "nit picky" things but i suppose it comes down to personal preferences.

I've had my enclosure now in my hobby room and happy  with it. The only real gripe from me is the heap fan is noiserthan the printer is, but by alot, so the noise reduction of the printer is overtaken by the heap fan. 

I have seen a few people question the cost of the replacment filter but i would say this, i don't have it on all the time and each time I print so when using PLA or PETG the fumes are less and the particles stay inside as i close te  enclosure door. I also run the filter at the end of the print to pick up any parts before opening the door to remove a completed print. If printing with ABS or Nylon then the filter is on all the time the print is being made. 

Use common sense.

Nick

RE: UK Gov approved 3D safety enclosure - The Kora 3D sc-01

Posted by: @nick-b16

@jadedreddragon

I have seen a few people question the cost of the replacment filter but i would say this, i don't have it on all the time and each time I print so when using PLA or PETG the fumes are less and the particles stay inside as i close te  enclosure door.

Printing PLA in an enclosure without air flow will lead to issues. This is not practical.

It’s actually doesn’t matter how often you use it with filter. The cost argument applies in general. If you print in ABS your parts are more expensive just because of this setup.