The increasing popularity of 3D printing has revolutionized products and designs from industrial prototyping to educational, commercial, and residential environments. This technology’s prominence in non-industrial spaces like classrooms, makerspaces, and residence halls makes understanding the health and safety risks paramount.

While 3D printing offers innovation and potential, the process introduces a critical public health concern – the potential release of airborne contaminants during operation. To address the public health risks associated with 3D printing, our research helps identify chemical emissions and deliver science-based solutions to enhance 3D printing safety across user groups.

Chemical Insights’ research focuses on the two most common consumer-grade technologies: Material extrusion (filament-based) and Vat polymerization (resin-based). Despite their widespread use, both techniques introduce contaminants that can pose human health hazards throughout printing.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

During operation, 3D printers release a complex mixture of volatile organic compounds that often exceeds 200 distinct species. VOCs easily evaporate into the air and can be inhaled.

Health impact

Many detected VOCs are known irritants, odorants, and carcinogens. Short-term exposure can cause eye, nose, and throat irritation in addition to headaches and nausea. Long-term exposure is associated with damage to the liver and central nervous system, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and asthma.

Resin hazard

In the vat polymerization of 3D printing technique, a vat filled with a resin is cured — or hardened — into a solid by exposure to UV light. The uncured resin itself is a source of VOCs that can be emitted even when the printer is simply loaded and turned off.

Material extrusion printers commonly found in schools and makerspaces pose exposure risks to vulnerable populations, such as children, older adults, people with pre-existing respiratory conditions, and more.  Our research on 3D printing in the classroom highlights how emissions can affect students and educators, primarily due to UFPs and VOCs.

• Temperature and material impact: The magnitude of emissions is directly tied to the nozzle temperature and filament type being used. 
• Polylactic acid (PLA)  generally emits fewer contaminants, which makes it a safer material choice.
• Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and nylon typically print at higher temperatures and consequently release significantly more UFPs and VOCs.

3D printing is a critical tool for manufacturing parts for products in the electronic, aerospace defense, and automotive sectors. This industrial adoption requires adherence to safety standards and engineering controls to manage the high UFP and VOC emissions in a commercial-scale environment.

Emission characterization in battery fabrication

Advancements in additive manufacturing have extended into the energy sector, particularly in lithium-ion battery fabrication. In collaboration with the University of Houston and UL Research Institutes’ Electrochemical Safety — another unit under UL Resarch Institutes — our research focuses on emission assessments during slurry processing and printing of battery materials.

• Battery manufacturing: This study investigates the generation and characteristics of emissions during the fabrication and printing of lithium-ion battery components, particularly during slurry preparation and layer deposition.
• Safety relevance: Battery fabrication requires consistent emission profiling. Characterizing emissions is essential for understanding potential exposure hazards and devising appropriate mitigation strategies. 
• Collaborative framework: This project builds upon the ongoing research conducted by the University of Houston and UL Research Institutes’ Electrochemical Safety regarding the 3D printing of solid-state batteries. The inclusion of Chemical Insights expertise further enhances the partnership through systematic testing of emissions from battery fabrication processes.