Air quality monitoring for 3D printer

[Wes_3DO]

Hi everyone.

I'm trying to find sensors to monitor air quality which work with Labview.  The 3D printer we are using has a risk of contaminating the air with particles, fumes etc.  If I could monitor the air particles, O2 and CO2 levels I think this would be a good start to making the print room safe (and real time monitored).  If anyone is interested you can have a look at what we're doing here

[johnsold]

Interesting  product!

There are many instruments and sensors for air quaility monitoring. Besides O2 and CO2 what other materials do you need to monitor? What are the ranges of concentrations you must detect? How will you be sampling the air? What is the size range of any particles/droplets? What is the required update rate? Probably some other questions may be relevant as well but these are the ones that come to mind quickly.

Lynn

[Wes_3DO]

Hi Lynn,

Fast reply, thanks!  

The first and most important thing to monitor for is a powder at 56 microns in size.  I don't know much about air quality monitoring other than the gas detectors I've used offshore.  These don't do airborne particles so it's the centre of the question really.  I understand O2 and CO2 monitoring and can probably figure these ones out.  It's the particles I am not sure about.  I use Labview so it's more the particle sensor and the interface into the Labview environment which I need some guidance on.    

Thanks,
Wes

[johnsold]

Wes,

A quick search for "particle size monitor" found several devices which might be suitable. Particle Measuring Systems. Chemtrac. Dandong Dongfang Measurement & Control.  I have not used any of these but they will give you some ideas where to start. At least one of them communicates via RS-232 so intrefacing to LabVIEW should not be difficult.

Lynn

[Wes_3DO]

Hi Lynn,

Thanks for the companies.  My issue in the past has been acquiring the RS232 commands.  I was wondering if anyone knew of sensors which have a labview driver package.  I remember doing something similar with weighing scales for a project and it was really easy with the labview driver package. I'll keep looking for the easy solution.

Thanks,
Wes

[johnsold]

RS-232 can be a hassle. Did you look through the drivers on the NI web site to see if any are for instruments which might work for you?

If the instrument has a good manual, it usually is not too difficult to get a LV implementation of the command set.

Lynn

[Wes_3DO]

Yeah I've started to look, just can't find anything suitable yet.  Lots of back and forth.  I also have a couple of datataker 80's so I'm also looking at 4-20mA sensors.