3DPrintClean Enclosure - any experience with this?

[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 A cheap source of good high-capacity active carbon filters is to get outdated gas mask filters from an army surplus store.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 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

[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