Now that definitely Glowforge is close to be in my hands I have decide to investigate the world of fume extractors for laser cutting machines.
I would like to know what are the tech especifications of the Glowforge air filter. I see that almos all the fume extractors use 3 step filtering system: prefilter, HEPA filter and activated carbon. Is the case of the Glowforge`s filter?
@dan I know that the filter is still under construction and some of the sepcifications are not clear or still you can`t makes it public. I will stimate so much if you could tell as all the details than you can about the filter, efficiency, filtering steps, airflow / pressure, filtering surface media area…
i’m telling you right now you’re going to be disappointed in their response. they are very, very tight-lipped about literally any specification other than physical size for any of their products.
Thanks for your reply @jrnelson I know it, but I only want to know what Im buying and I think that every backers have the right to know it. Hope that they can answer me, because nowadays I dont know enything about the filter and for me it is an important aspect because I will work in the same space that the glowforge cuts & engraves.
i understand that and i think you’ll find a lot of people here feel similarly. i’m just telling you not to get your hopes up because there is no way they’re going to bring up that stuff until the filter is much closer to shipping.
this attitude annoyed me a bit with the laser, but with the filter i can sort of understand - if it works as well as they intimate, it should be a big improvement over current options for a number of reasons, and that’s something that companies will try to snipe them on.
still, it’s frustrating, i agree, especially if you’re planning this to go outside of the home.
Even when the production GF is shipping there is no proper information about it so I wouldn’t hold any hope of getting a specification of the filter. More like if you use PG it will be safe, if not we won’t say. It will be down to tear downs and third party tests I think.
to an extent but to a greater extent than the laser itself the filter will be subject to health and safety tests and regulations. i’m not sure if they’re allowed to keep that sort of thing secret, but we’ll find out. either way i can’t imagine there’s going to be some kind of special sauce you can’t see just by looking at the inside…barring, i suppose, information like filter surface area.
Yes the lack of information is very frustrating. I think, apart from my house and car, this is the most expensive thing I have ever bought and nearly two years after buying it I still don’t know exactly what it will do.
@jrnelson@palmercr I understan perfectly what you say, I agree with you. We need know if glowforge`s filter will use a traditional filtering system, or it will use a totally different and innovative way to filter the laser smoke.
The filter increase me 476 $ the shipping costs, and I need to justify myself why I`m spending this money in the filter of glowforge and not in another one that I can buy it in Europe without duties and much more cheaper. Fore example, you guys have very good fume extractors in UK
it’s almost certainly a traditional filter. i mean they might have managed to develop a special filtration medium, but i’m skeptical that this wouldn’t have been mentioned (basing this off of dan’s estimated $250 filter replacement cost, which is pretty average).
i don’t think they do any sort of fun new micro-sized cyclonic filtration or anything first.
I am almost at the point with the filter to fabricate my own. As said above I don’t imagine its much more then pre filter Hepa and carbon.
Only thing I need to know is what cfm is needed as well as if there is over rev protection on the gf fans. As the fan I plan on useing is a 8inch 790cfm (0-10v or pwm speed control) so I know if I pull 800cfm off a gf fan only turning 200cfm the vacuum from my fan will spin the gf fan faster and that will generate back feed power into the gf and maybe let the smoke out. I have to assume they put protection in for this as they must have expected people to have booster fans. But as my fan is speed controlled all I need to know is cfm requirement so I can just tune my fan.
the problem with doing this is that you also need to run tests on the composition of the outflow. laser combustion / ablation produces dozens if not hundreds of compounds, many of which are toxic, carcinogenic, and often odorless, or nearly.
as for the over rev this has been covered on the forums; they were using a 3rd party filter on the ones at bamf; if you search you can probably find what they used.
Thank you so much for your sweet words!