Solidoodle Press and Fire Safety features

Probably because it doesn't have any, just like all hobby grade 3D printers on the market today. General information has been posted.  Buy a fire extinguisher and keep it near by and don't run the printer when you are out of the house if you are not comfortable with that risk.  Do you have a toaster?  If so, do you think it needs built in fire protection too?  Do you think everything needs redundant safety features?

Most toasters have passed UL standards. 3D Printers in this range have not. They are an open heater element directly connected to a fuel source (plastic) with a hobbyist microcontroller with code that varies week-to-week. From a product manufacturer perspective, the toaster is a hundred times safer than any 3D printer below $3000.

For your interest IronMan, UL has a specific standard for coffee makers: UL 1082

Arduino + smoke sensor. And a relay controller by the arduino to cutoff power supply. Should work, I'm gonna work on something like that when I get my press. Tho the smoke sensor needs som calibration, so it doesn't kick off by the fumes from ABS or other.

I no longer have the original power supply that came with my SD3 back in the day, but I don't remember seeing any UL markings on its label.  Maybe someone still has one and can look at it and reply here.  What about the latest power supplies, do they have any UL certification?

If not, Soliddodle should get on the ball.  Selling electrical devices that haven't been UL certified is bad. All it takes is a catastrophic event and a lawsuit, and there's no more Solidoodle.

Yes I know they could submit the entire contraption to be UL certified, but that can get very expensive and might not be feasible on this type of device without extensive modifications.  However, short of that, at a minimum, the power supply should be UL certified.

I know buying a ultra cheap Chinese made power supply is tempting, but those are as cheap as they are because they're made with low cost, inferior components that would probably not pass any of UL's tests in the first place, so they're being sold with only the CE certificate which in the long run means nothing since the CE is "self declaration" that doesn't require any lab tests and results.  I've seen hundreds of cheap power supplies with all kinds of fake markings, misspelled markings and even the wrong markings for the device.  They just plaster a bunch of useless marks on the label without any real certs behind them.

Excellent Corporate Reply...

Here are the translation comments:

Steve,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. (Translation - It took so long because the Legal Beagles had to review it.) We understand safety is important to you - it is a top priority for us, as well. In fact we think of product safety in terms of a design philosophy that manifests itself on every level of our hardware and software products, from design, to component ratings, to temperature controls (Translation - We try to do our best with our designs). As such, it's potentially misleading to think of safety as simply a list of discrete features (Translation - We are not U.L. Listed). To ensure the safe operation of your printer, be sure that you are complying with our Best Practices (e.g., not modifying your printer, not leaving your printer unattended, and keeping your printer away from moisture and extreme temperatures) (Translation - Try not to do anything we didn't intend you to do). We encourage all of our customers to read the Best Practices and check back periodically for updates (Translation - You're on your own...So stay with your printer and kill the power if something bursts into flame - Good Luck).

Kindest regards,
Frank

Which means absolutely nothing in this country. 

Technically there's nothing to prevent anyone from selling or buying non UL listed appliances, however, if you have a fire and the investigations traces it back to non-listed appliance, your insurance would probably deny coverage.

If a lawsuit ensues, a good lawyer should be able to drag the appliance manufacturer into a long dragged out lawsuit and make them pay.

So the few dollars Solidoodle saves on their cheap adapters would go to pay for the lawyers.  They've been lucky so far, but Murphy's law being what it is, I wonder how long they can go on like this.

If they want to be viewed as a true player in the filed, they need to clean up their act, and act like a real company.  Get they products tested and listed, or at least manufacture the product with UL recognized components.

For what it's worth, I don't know what SD pays for their adapters, but I work for a computer company and I come across this stuff all the time.  An adapter like the one that comes with the SD (or like the one that was bundled back in March of '13), costs somewhere between $8-12 with a minimum order quantity from 500-1000.  A good quality adapter from a company like FSP, or Delta, of similar capacity (12A), with full certs (UL, CSA, TUV, FCC, CE, CCC, etc.) costs about $35-45 depending on quantity.

Because my company sells a lot pf products into the medical field, we need to buy medical grade power supplies (UL 60601-1 listed).  The same type power supply costs $75-90 with medical grade certs.

So you can see why SD is going down the cheap route, but somewhere down the line, they need to grow up and clean up their act. 

@SoliJohn
Please feel free to comment on this issue.  I know you read these, but you've been pretty mum about this issue.