I understand what you are saying, but I think my preference at this point would be a software based profile correction. There are already materials that benefit from being printed in an enclosure, such as PC and to a slightly lesser extent ABS. Also, this enclosure is clean, professional looking and commercially available. I would have to go off and make my own wire based solution.
As a home based tinkerer, that would not be a problem, in this case as a corporate asset it wouldn't be optimal.
tell them it cannot be done and then let them have a discussion with your CEO as to which department is more important to the Company. PLA requirement is to be printed cool. We have printed PLA mostly, for 4+ years, and always leave the door open and remove the lid (they are for ABS). To date we all still have 8 fingers, two thumbs and two lungs.
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You could... add a fan/vent.
I would also like to see an easy way to switch (on something like a i3Mk3 you could read its ambient temp sensor to see what's really going on).
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It's not just the printing temperature that would need to change. You'd pretty much need entirely new profiles. So this isn't something that we can add to Cura (well, we could, but it would be quite expensive).
As for the risk of touching moving parts; The machine is CE aproved. Why does your safety officer suddenly require extra safety measures?
56 minutes ago, yellowshark said:tell them it cannot be done and then let them have a discussion with your CEO as to which department is more important to the Company. PLA requirement is to be printed cool. We have printed PLA mostly, for 4+ years, and always leave the door open and remove the lid (they are for ABS). To date we all still have 8 fingers, two thumbs and two lungs.
I feel the same, but the problem with this is that in case of accidents, it will be the management and safety-people who are prosecuted in court. So, from their viewpoint, their safety from being prosecuted is way more important than your printing quality. Judges are so unpredictable and sometimes so irrational here, that common sense is not always an option. At least, that is how they feel. I know a situation where a manager had to go to court, because one of the employees in his chemical plant committed suicide by jumping off an installation, after taking an overdose of pills, due to marriage problems. The reasoning: "It shouldn't have been possible to jump off installations". In the end he wasn't sentenced, but it still was a heavy experience.
Another option might be to demonstrate that getting stuck between the moving rods, doesn't hurt at all. The stepper motors do not have enough force. When they can't move, they simply skip steps and ruin your print, and your mood, but that's all. Don't ask me how I know. 
I wanted to remove a hair while it was printing, and I just sort of forgot that it could suddenly move...
It's not like hydraulics which can have tons of force. It is more like a toy.
I would rather consider it a safety feature that you can grab the print head and stop it, in case something goes wrong.
7 minutes ago, nallath said:It's not just the printing temperature that would need to change. You'd pretty much need entirely new profiles. So this isn't something that we can add to Cura (well, we could, but it would be quite expensive).
As for the risk of touching moving parts; The machine is CE aproved. Why does your safety officer suddenly require extra safety measures?
Kinda like my nozzle size request - if it is considered part of the printer, then having the ability to "copy" a printer and change the settings would work - you'd just select "covered" or "uncovered" from the printer list as your box goes on and off.
Question: To hear you describe it, you never will use the printer with the box off, so....why do you need to switch regularly?
It sounds like you need to put the printer in a cage. Like the type of cages some companies put their rack servers in so they can be under lock and key.
That way nobody can access the printer without the key, but the enclosures can be removed without compromising 'safety'. Unfortunately we live in a world of irrational lawsuits. Short of sticking your finger directly on the heated nozzle I think printers are pretty benign.
What happens when someone stabs themselves with the palette knife trying to remove a print?
15 hours ago, AbeFM said:Kinda like my nozzle size request - if it is considered part of the printer, then having the ability to "copy" a printer and change the settings would work - you'd just select "covered" or "uncovered" from the printer list as your box goes on and off.
Question: To hear you describe it, you never will use the printer with the box off, so....why do you need to switch regularly?
You don't need to just change the printer; you'd need to change every profile in the printer. The Ultimaker 3 has a quality profile per quality type (Normal, Fine, etc), Per material (ABS, PLA, PVA, etc) and per variant (AA 0.4, BB 0.4, etc).
The difference in temperature behaviour will require different settings for certain qualities. It's not as simple as just changing a few temperatures and calling it a day. It would effectively double the profiles that are already there. Copying those isn't hard, but ensuring that all of them are good is.
Lo oh for sure, the world of litigation that we live in these days, our American cousins have a lot to answer for, can be blamed for everything. And indeed Health and Safety, in its origin, was a laudable thing but these days laws are dreamed up just to keep them employed. Pinch points? Give me a break. I pinched my finger in a kitchen drawer the other week; should be suing the manufacturer for his poor design? Does the CEO want to miss out on new business or make product development longer than necessary just because some mutt might pinch his her finger by being stupid. I think not.
Fortunately running my own 3D printing business I set the policies and getting the best quality print possible is one of them
Thanks for the lively discussion!
Waging war with our safety department is not a path I am prepared to take for many reasons, some already described here by some astute commenters. AbeFM, I appreciate your note about adding a vent fan. I didn't think of that before, and the enclosure lid includes a fan provision for a 40mm fan. I'll try buying one and see if it can draw off enough heat to make a difference in print quality.
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Just stumbled across this post on reddit, and it might help you:
Someone made a Cura plugin that allows for controlling an external enclosure fan. So you arrange for the exhaust to be full when your printing PLA but minimal for ABS.
This would require the enclosure fan to be somehow hooked up to your UM3X so it can be controlled by gcode. Absolutely no idea if it is possible, but something you could look into.
Interesting! I get the sense that this may be easier to achieve on a different printer. I like the concept but since this is a company printer I'm not inclined to do surgery to it to power the fan from the printer's controller.
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If the problem (according to the safety-people) is risk of accidentally touching moving parts or hot parts: what about installing metal chicken wire, instead of a full enclosure? Then people cannot get in with their hands, but it allows normal airflow?
I don't know if "chicken wire" is a good English word, but I mean the steel wires used to keep chicken, rabbits, rats, birds, etc..., out of a garden. It is just steel wire with holes of a few centimeters. Or something similar.
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