PVC sheet used as an enclosure material?

Has anyone used PVC sheet as an enclosure for a printer? PVC is naturally fire retardant. I have found thin clear flexible PVC at a local hardware store for a very low price. I was going to use metal as an enclosure material but PVC seems much easier to get done.

PVC releases chlorine gas if burned. Not the best idea.

For my 3D printer, I am opting for a foam enclosure that is encased in wood. My general thought process is that the fully enclosed heated chamber would limit the oxygen supply enough that it could not burn through the wood before the fire ran out of oxidizer. The concept is similar to that of covering a candle to put it out. With that said though, I designed more on the side of preventing fires in the first place rather than containing them once they start.

Fire Prevention Examples:
- Thermal fuses on the heated bed
- Software support for various thermistor failure modes (falls out, shorts, etc)
- GFCI Outlet
- 10 Amp Fuse
- Secondary relays that can be used by the firmware to shut down all power except 5v control to avoid SSR's failing open
- Decent quality electronics on parts that matter (Control Board, Emergency Relays, etc)

Fire Containment Examples:
- Smoke Detectors
- Fire Extinguishers (nearby)
- Enclosed Printer ideally with inflammable construction
- Separate filament in sealed box (Some filament is flammable)
- Printer placed on pavers or other inflammable surfaces

I will be implementing most of these on my printer in progress, and these are great places to start with fire safety.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2017 08:19PM by Trexation.

Quote
Edvardas
Has anyone used PVC sheet as an enclosure for a printer? PVC is naturally fire retardant. I have found thin clear flexible PVC at a local hardware store for a very low price. I was going to use metal as an enclosure material but PVC seems much easier to get done.

i ve bought 2meters of this some days ago and drop it on on the top of my mendel . it did a good job as my mendels are at a 10c enviroment.

me best bet ( but it is colored ) is epdm . i have a roll of it, it is flexible and i ll try to cover most of my mendel with this and some pvc for the windows .

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Delta Printer
Duet 0.8.5 firmware 1.19

You can find M1 (difficultly flamable) PVC foam panels.
That is an interesting solution as quite light.

About oxygen depletion in an enclosure, the problem is that a rapid fire in a tight enclosure will increase the pressure and may blow off the door, defeating the purpose. It occured to me twice in a domestic microwave oven and I can tell that I was quite surprised by the event.

For general safety, you may have a look at the RepRap Wiki page Safety

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Pierre

- Safety [reprap.org]
- Embedded help system for Duet and RepRap Firmware [forums.reprap.org]
- Enclosed delta printers Lily [rouzeau.net] and Lily Big [rouzeau.net]
- OpenScad delta printer simulator [github.com]
- 3D printing on my site [www.rouzeau.net]