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Nanoparticle Exposure and Workplace Measurements During Processes Related to 3D Printing of a Metal Object

Metal 3D printing has many potential uses within prototyping and manufacturing. Selective laser melting (SLM) is a process that uses metal powders in the micrometer range as printing material. The particle release from the entire SLM printing process is not well-studied. While the 3D printing itself...

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Autores principales: Jensen, Alexander C. Ø., Harboe, Henrik, Brostrøm, Anders, Jensen, Keld A., Fonseca, Ana S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7723871/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33324605
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.608718
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author Jensen, Alexander C. Ø.
Harboe, Henrik
Brostrøm, Anders
Jensen, Keld A.
Fonseca, Ana S.
author_facet Jensen, Alexander C. Ø.
Harboe, Henrik
Brostrøm, Anders
Jensen, Keld A.
Fonseca, Ana S.
author_sort Jensen, Alexander C. Ø.
collection PubMed
description Metal 3D printing has many potential uses within prototyping and manufacturing. Selective laser melting (SLM) is a process that uses metal powders in the micrometer range as printing material. The particle release from the entire SLM printing process is not well-studied. While the 3D printing itself often occurs in a sealed chamber, activities related to the process can potentially release harmful metal particles to the indoor working environment through resuspension of the printing powder or via incident nanoparticles generated during printing. The objective of this study was to improve the understanding of particle exposure in work processes associated with 3D printing and potential needs for interventions by a case study conducted in a 3D printing facility. In this setting, direct release and dispersion of particles throughout the workspace from processes related to metal 3D printing was investigated. The release from five activities were studied in detail. The activities included post-printing cleaning, object annealing, and preparation of new base substrate for the next printing was. Three of the five measured activities caused particles number concentrations in the working environment to increase above background levels which were found to be 8·10(2) cm(−3). Concentrations during chamber emptying and the open powder removal system (PRS) cleaning processes increased to 10(4) and 5·10(3) cm(−3), respectively, whereas grinding activity increased number concentrations to 2.5·10(5) cm(−3). Size distributions showed that particles were mainly smaller than 200 nm. Respirable mass concentrations were 50.4 μg m(−3), collected on filters. This was corroborated by respirable mass measured with a DustTrak of 58.4 μg m(−3). Respirable mass concentrations were below the occupational exposure limits in Denmark for an 8 h time-weighted average.
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spelling pubmed-77238712020-12-14 Nanoparticle Exposure and Workplace Measurements During Processes Related to 3D Printing of a Metal Object Jensen, Alexander C. Ø. Harboe, Henrik Brostrøm, Anders Jensen, Keld A. Fonseca, Ana S. Front Public Health Public Health Metal 3D printing has many potential uses within prototyping and manufacturing. Selective laser melting (SLM) is a process that uses metal powders in the micrometer range as printing material. The particle release from the entire SLM printing process is not well-studied. While the 3D printing itself often occurs in a sealed chamber, activities related to the process can potentially release harmful metal particles to the indoor working environment through resuspension of the printing powder or via incident nanoparticles generated during printing. The objective of this study was to improve the understanding of particle exposure in work processes associated with 3D printing and potential needs for interventions by a case study conducted in a 3D printing facility. In this setting, direct release and dispersion of particles throughout the workspace from processes related to metal 3D printing was investigated. The release from five activities were studied in detail. The activities included post-printing cleaning, object annealing, and preparation of new base substrate for the next printing was. Three of the five measured activities caused particles number concentrations in the working environment to increase above background levels which were found to be 8·10(2) cm(−3). Concentrations during chamber emptying and the open powder removal system (PRS) cleaning processes increased to 10(4) and 5·10(3) cm(−3), respectively, whereas grinding activity increased number concentrations to 2.5·10(5) cm(−3). Size distributions showed that particles were mainly smaller than 200 nm. Respirable mass concentrations were 50.4 μg m(−3), collected on filters. This was corroborated by respirable mass measured with a DustTrak of 58.4 μg m(−3). Respirable mass concentrations were below the occupational exposure limits in Denmark for an 8 h time-weighted average. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7723871/ /pubmed/33324605 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.608718 Text en Copyright © 2020 Jensen, Harboe, Brostrøm, Jensen and Fonseca. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Jensen, Alexander C. Ø.
Harboe, Henrik
Brostrøm, Anders
Jensen, Keld A.
Fonseca, Ana S.
Nanoparticle Exposure and Workplace Measurements During Processes Related to 3D Printing of a Metal Object
title Nanoparticle Exposure and Workplace Measurements During Processes Related to 3D Printing of a Metal Object
title_full Nanoparticle Exposure and Workplace Measurements During Processes Related to 3D Printing of a Metal Object
title_fullStr Nanoparticle Exposure and Workplace Measurements During Processes Related to 3D Printing of a Metal Object
title_full_unstemmed Nanoparticle Exposure and Workplace Measurements During Processes Related to 3D Printing of a Metal Object
title_short Nanoparticle Exposure and Workplace Measurements During Processes Related to 3D Printing of a Metal Object
title_sort nanoparticle exposure and workplace measurements during processes related to 3d printing of a metal object
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7723871/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33324605
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.608718
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