Despite the dangers posed, many desktop 3D printer users leave their machines unattended while lengthy print jobs are being performed. Maker Andrew Maurer, however, knows that doing so opens up users to the risk of fire caused by some mis-printed plastic onto the printer’s electronics or other hazardous possibilities. For that reason, Maurer has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Smoke Signal, a small-scale smoke detector that can be placed directly on one’s 3D printer in the case of a small fire.
Smoke Signal is a small sensor that interrupts the circuit between a 3D printer and a power outlet so that, in the case of a small fire, it can shut down a printer as quickly as possible. The device is placed inside of the print area, on the ceiling of an enclosure or above the printer’s microcontroller, where it can detect smoke and stop a print job before the fire becomes unmanageable. Maurer lists a few examples in which a 3D printer was left unattended and burned down entire rooms. And, though a building’s smoke detector could prevent the entire place from becoming rubble, standard smoke detectors, Maurer writes, only go off when rooms are filled with smoke.
Maurer is seeking a humble $7,000 to order the PCB boards to make 100 Smoke Signal units, which he is selling $60 and up (though this early bird price is now sold out). The Smoke Signal isn’t a foolproof method for preventing fires that result from sloppy wiring or cheap connectors, but it’s one more precautionary measure for protecting users. Along with air filters for dealing with particulates from ABS, a device like the Smoke Signal could become a standard feature in future generations of 3D printers.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Smoke Signal, head over to the KS page and/or watch the campaign video below:
This has possibility. Yet it would be easier to have sales of 3d printers come with a warning “some printers may cause fires, steps should be made to insure a nonflammable work area where printer (s) may be used”. Granted this just means to stop installing these in wooden book shelving. Use of sheet rock in back, sides, top and bottom will be sufficient to limit fire from spreading if the printer does engulf. These are simple steps observed when installing most woodstoves here in Maine.
I like and support Kickstarter efforts in general. This one is too much technology and risk. There is no money in the asking budget for UL/CE approvals or insurance against a failed device. Downeasta’s suggestions coupled with an automatic fire extinguisher are better and safer than relying on this device.
Don’t leave the machine unattended. It is a machine.
Worthy discussion starter and certainly a concept for a last ditch resort in reducing the risk of fire taking hold on what is probably an already toasted machine.
This risk should be tackled at the control system design stage as reasonably foreseeable failures of the heater control systems can often leave the heater at 100% duty causing a significant risk of fire. Faults can be detected by thermal snap switches, thermal fuses, or comparing the duty applied to the measured temperature response to see if it is within expected bounds. On fault detection the power could be cut to the heater by a monitored forced contacts relay, with fuses rated to blow before the relay contacts weld.
This would probably add a minimum of £50 of components, but would give much more chance of catching a fault before it wrecks equipment and be a step toward being able to sensibly leave the machines unattended.