Monitoring Indoor Air Quality in Additive Manufacturing environment

Abstract An Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) monitoring and assessment is necessary in order to safeguard the well being of the occupants. This research addresses this issue in an Additive Manufacturing (AM) platform of an educational institute. Performing air monitoring requires quantifying the platform user exposures. Regulations, local policies, as well as ISO standards are well developed for office environments and industrial sites. However the indicators and the pollution levels allowed for new tools and technologies are yet to be defined. This is specifically the case in France for AM educational purpose. A practical IAQ assessment protocol is addressed in this research questioning: the type of emissions to measure, and the way to measure them on an AM platform. The method includes a selection of the assessment parameters for the IAQ, the associated IAQ indicators and the associated sensors to measure emissions rates. The assessment protocol has been applied to GINOVA S.mart Grenoble-Alps educational FabLab for students and researchers. Emissions have been measured from a variety of AM technologies, merging material and gas input resources. The choice of sensor and measurement method is discussed in this paper. The measurement results cover a variety of particles and gas emissions. This paper concludes on the limits and the opportunities of an IAQ dynamic assessment protocol to make an emerging manufacturing platform eager to develop the number of machines using various materials types, a cleaner environment for its users. The Makers community could be interested to use such a protocol in any standard FabLab.