Fireproof enclosure

Hi,

I got offered a little office space today for my printer, that put the topic of a fire proof enclosure back on the menu for me. There are a lot of discussion but I havent seen a lot of finished enclosures.

My idea was to pour some concrete slabs similar to a DIY aluminum furnace and the get a cheap pressurized air pump for to feed cooling air to hotend and modelcooler. That could be timbered together from the outside and closed of with concrete and it has the nice effect of creating a heated chamber.
There are a lot of potential gimmicks one could add like automated fire extinguishers, smoke detectors that close the door in case the air pump idea doesnt work.

So who has done something like that and wants to share his experiences?

PIR foam is fire retardant/resistant (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXan0uONA04 and [www.youtube.com] and [www.youtube.com]) and a lot lighter and easier to deal with than buying/making concrete panels. You can get it at Home Depot for $15 per 4'x8'x1" sheet, and cut it with a razor knife. It's light weight so you can assemble your enclosure using duct tape if you want, and be done with the whole project in about 15 minutes.

[www.thingiverse.com]

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2015 03:15PM by the_digital_dentist.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Also the water inherently contained within concrete could boil with enough heat causing pressure to build and the concrete to explode (not kidding, small hole in the garage floor. If you want a cast stone type enclosure use plaster of Paris and water. See homemade can forges.

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Prusa i3 Rework - Ramps 1.4 - E3d Lite6 - Full Graphic LCD Controller

Yes the DIY forges use plaster, sand and or concrete, the mixure would need to be tested before I guess and concerning the foam I checked in my local store and didnt find something suitable but that looks promising.

Use a steal box and put intumescent door seals around the opening panels and use fire rated sealent compounds for cable entries.
If you have a spare $3K get a "racking extinguisher" and mount in the top of the box above the printer.
http://www.redetec.co.uk/products/redetec-with-point-detection

This gives you about a 30minute fire resistance enclosure (minimum) which is more then enough time for the racking extinguisher to kill power to the printer and fill the box with agent.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2015 05:24AM by GRAYWOLF.

Jeez, PIR foam sounds so much easier, cheaper, and faster...

Look at the video links I posted- those are welding torches directed at the foam. The stuff doesn't burn.

If you have a fire inside the PIR enclosure, whatever you use to hold the PIR together at the corners may not hold up for long, but there really isn't much to burn inside a 3D printer enclosure, unless your machine has a wood/MDF frame, a lot of plastic parts, and plastic windows on the enclosure. The most likely sources of ignition are the hot-end which, depending on your design, may have some plastic parts surrounding it, and the power supply, which is probably outside the enclosure anyway, if you want it to keep working for a long time. There's a pretty good chance that the burning plastic inside the enclosure or the burning power supply outside the enclosure will generate enough smoke to find its way to a nearby smoke detector - keep one in the room with the printer- but maybe normal operation of the printer will set off a smoke detector.

I'm not sure an enclosure is really a good idea from a fire safety perspective. If the material you use delays detection of the fire, it could be bad. If it adds fuel to the fire, it IS bad. I enclosed my printer so I could print ABS, not for any fire safety reasons.

I guess it's one more good reason to leave 3D printed parts out of your printer...

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]