3DPrintClean Enclosure - any experience with this?

[CBBC]

Hi All,

We're getting bad fumes, even with PLA, in our small office room with no ventilation.

Came across this enclosure with "recirculating ultrafine particle and fume filtration."
http://www.3dprintclean.com/

But before we spend this much money, wanted to know if anyone could speak to its usefulness

$1400 USD plus shipping for the small one.
$1600 USD plus shipping for the big one.

[Alibert]

I have no experience with this product, however as chemical engineer I do have experience with scrubbing air to remove volatiles.

There are basically two pollutants that will concern you, fine particles (which you can't smell, particles don't bind to your odor receptors, only molecules can) and VOC's (volatile/gaseous molecules, which you do smell). Of those the particles are suspected to be worse for your health than the VOC's, even if you can't smell them. You will need a HEPA filter to remove the particles, and most likely active charcoal filter to remove the VOC's (the smell). The active charcoal will also bind some of the particles but may or may not be as effective as a good HEPA filter. Depending on the cutoff size the pores need to be small enough. Smaller pore sizes increases the pressure drop over the filter, so this might not be an option for a small unit.

The amount of material that active charcoal can absorb is limited. That means you will have to exchange the filter material on a regular basis, which means you will have more costs depending on how much the supplier charges for new filters (which most likely will be unique as to dimensions so that you can not second source them).

Basically, you need to enclose your printer in a cabinet and have a fan that recirculates the inner air over a filter. Do not blow in fresh air and suck out the waste air as that is not efficient. A cheap source of good high-capacity active carbon filters is to get outdated gas mask filters from an army surplus store. They look like this:

images.jpg images (1).jpg
Make sure you get the ones intented for absorbing chemicals or chemicals/biohazards as these will have the active charcoal. After the 'expire-by date' has passed the army can no longer use them for personnel, but they are perfectly allright for technical applications. Print an adapter to screw in the filter and connect to a fan, and you have your air scrubber with disposable filter. The gas mask filter usually also has a HEPA filter built in, although I don't know what the size cutoff is.

And when you have a cabinet, you can also include a recirculating ceramic air heater to boost the ambient temperature if needed for a particular filament type.

[ServiceXp]

To the OP:
You are not kidding, they are expensive. That said, it does look like a solid design, one that should work very well. It's a bonus if your current printer does not have an enclosure, but has a heated bed.


I can attest its not efficient (not easy) trying to create a negative pressure gradient inside an enclosure (can be very difficult), from the bottom of the enclosure. However it's very efficient creating that negative gradient pulling from the top of the enclosure. We get the help from the convection effect of the printing process. I think creating a small negative gradient inside the enclosure is the best way to filter out the pollutants. I think it leave the least amount of possible pollutants from escaping the enclosure.

I have done some testing with trying to move air through those respirator filters, and I found it's extremely difficult. You can check out a couple of videos on my YouTube channel on moving air through these respirators filters.

anyway just my .2 cents..

[Davo]

I have no experience with this product, however as chemical engineer I do have experience with scrubbing air to remove volatiles.

Question for you: what do you think about this air filter for use with 3D printing in an enclosure?

\http://www.holmesproducts.com/air-pu...3000UV-TU.html

[CBBC]

I have no experience with this product, however as chemical engineer I do have experience with scrubbing air to remove volatiles.

There are basically two pollutants that will concern you, fine particles (which you can't smell, particles don't bind to your odor receptors, only molecules can) and VOC's (volatile/gaseous molecules, which you do smell). Of those the particles are suspected to be worse for your health than the VOC's, even if you can't smell them. You will need a HEPA filter to remove the particles, and most likely active charcoal filter to remove the VOC's (the smell). The active charcoal will also bind some of the particles but may or may not be as effective as a good HEPA filter. Depending on the cutoff size the pores need to be small enough. Smaller pore sizes increases the pressure drop over the filter, so this might not be an option for a small unit.

Thank you Alibert. Appreciate this knowledge you've shared.
One of our colleagues is very sensitive to either the fine particles or the volatiles. He is actually losing work time due to this problem, so we're looking for a practical solution.

From the 3Dprintclean website:
"our patent pending recirculating filtration solution, repeatedly scrubs the contaminated air, until the concentration of ultrafine particle (UFP), and total volatile organic compound (TVOC) emissions has been reduced, and the enclosure is safe to open.​"

http://www.3dprintclean.com/scrubber-filtration.htm

[CBBC]

I am curious too... could one of these air purifiers for the room itself do the job? They're more readily available and cost a fraction of this 3dprintclean enclosure.

Something like this perhaps
"Captures 99.97% of all particles down to 0.1 microns"
http://www.allergybuyersclub.com/blu...ml?itemId=3505

[Alibert]

Those air-purifiers work basically on particles (not VOC's). They tend to use a combination of HEPA filters and an ionizing source (electric or UV). The ionization charges the particles so that they 'stick' to the filter and stay there building up a layer. By using this electrostatic force the HEPA filter does not need to have very small pores. UV will also generate ozone (highly oxidative molecule) which can break down VOC's as well (it splits the VOC into smaller molecules, it does not remove them from the air).

In the process however they will emit some ions and/or ozone molecules into the environment, similar to a photo copier or laser printer. Some people are also sensitive to those ions/ozone as they can irritate the mucous membranes (the inside of your respitory pathway, mouthe and nasal cavity etc). The cheap 'air purifiers' are usually based on just plunking together some parts without any verification that they actually work, making bold claims based on hearsay and nothing more. The more expensive ones come from companies that actually measure the performance.

I would definitely try a good out before buying one, as it may remove one problem but introduce another. The main problem is to find out the actual source of the problem. Is it the particles, the VOC's or both? If the former, the ionization/electrostatic cleaning may solve the problem. If the latter, UV/ozone will remove (some of) the smell by breaking down the molecules into other (unknown) molecules which may or may not solve the problem. Only an active carbon filter will really remove the VOC's altogether. However, an active carbon filter will saturate over time, even if left open in a 'clean' area as it will adsorb anything from its environment (so keep it hermetically sealed when not in use). You will also need to replace the active carbon filters on a regular basis. Without a means of measurement, that would mean either prematurely (filter not yet saturated, high cost) or reactively (when your collegue starts to get problems again, cheaper but you use your colleague as the 'canary').

Given the situation, I would seriously look into making a cabinet and blow exhaust (dirty) air to the outside. All you need is a reasonably sealed cabinet, a fan and some ducts to the outside (or other room, garage or whatever). You could for exampel suckthe air from the cabinet and blow it to the exaust of a ventilation system going to the roof (do check that the fan can generate enough pressure to create the flow into the ventilation system). All you further need is a check-valve for letting air into the cabinet. If you place the air inlet near any photo-copier / laserprinter you could also (partly) remove those as possible source of the problem (something I would not rule out, by the way). That moves the VOC/particle problem to another place (with ducts that can be very far, hopefully the outside air / roof of the building), but has virtually zero maintenace and consumables (only the electricity for the fan).

You could also call in a contractor to build you a custom solution. It is basically standard ventilation stuff, similar to a bathroom/toilet after all.

ventilation.jpg

[Davo]

Thanks. Yeah, we have two fart fans constantly venting our print room to the outside, but not every user can do that.

[Alibert]

I know that it may seem a lot of bother. However, venting to the outside is the only fool-proof way of getting it done (that is removing all particals AND VOC's). Purifiers and adsorbers each only solve part of the problem, and all require maintenance and/or (expensive) consumables. Without proper control and maintenance procedures, you will eventually get into the problem zone again.

If you have a serious problem and money to spend, my advice is to go for ventilation to the outside to solve it once and for all.

Basically, if you have (or build) a spare toilet with ventilation, that would be a good place to run your printer(s) in.

[curious aardvark]

You could, and this comes from my first cold smoker adaptation.

Stick a cardboard box over the printer. Cut a hole in the top the same size as a clothes tumble dryer hose.
Stick one end of a tumble dryer hose in the hole and stick the other end out the window. Then cut hole in the box the same size as a biggish 4 inch 12 or 24 volt (depending on what connectors you have on the printer motherboard) pc fan in the side of the box opposite the hose hole.
And blow air into the box, this should take any air and particles from the printer out the window through the hose and cost about $10-15.

Once the printer was running the hot air would actually go down the hose and create a natural 'draw' at which point you could switch the pc fan off if you wanted to.

You do need a window that can be kept open, so that might be a drawback.

But you could test to see if it helped your employee before spending a bucket lioad of cash :-)