COALFACE - A compact activated carbon air purifier

thingiverse

COALFACE, or <b>co</b>mpact centrifug<b>al</b> <b>f</b>an <b>a</b>ir s<b>c</b>rubb<b>e</b>r (give me a break, I couldn't think of a better name) is a more powerful version of my other air purifier which I initially though to use for my IKEA lack enclosure on my FDM printer, but in the end I just printed someone else's design. Now I needed something to use in my resin printer that would fit in the back and be powerful enough to remove enough of the smell so that it wouldn't leak into the room. This design uses two centrifugal fans sandwiched together instead of a single axial fan to generate more airflow and pressure while keeping a similar overall footprint, as i found my other design to not be sufficient for the volume of air within my resin printer's enclosure. Downside is that running two blower fans is considerably noisier than using axial fans. COALFACE is designed to print without supports, and as a result of this it's also unintentionally somewhat modular, for example you could swap out the reservoir with a bigger or smaller one without having to reprint the entire thing. The reservoir is intended to be filled with activated carbon granules, but you can also use pellets, satchels, filter pads... anything you want, really. <h3>Parts required:</h3> - Printed parts - x4 M3 screws of appropriate length. Indicatively around 14mm, depends on how much of the fan you'll cut. More on that below. - x2 5015 centrifugal (blower style) fans - Activated carbon - Power source matching the fan's voltage. I used a 24v LED driver, you could run the fans from a battery if you prefer, or if you wanna get extra fancy you could wire the fans directly to the printer so they turn on when the printer does. <h3>Assembly:</h3> First of all, please note that you will need to modify your 5015 fans. You will most likely be able to reuse them in other projects if you choose, but the top of the head of screws you mount them with will need to sit flush with the rest of the fan. So you'll need to use a dremel or something similar to slice off about 3 or 4mm of the the fan's mounting holes, creating an indentation for the screw's head. Check out the second picture for an example. - Print all parts - Cut an indent into both mounting holes on both fans. As mentioned above, the goal is to have the screws not stick out to save space. - Assemble the main body. While routing the fan's power cable into the groove of the mounting plate so that it sticks out from the bottom, slide the blower fans in their place, making sure that the fan's duct sits well into the respective holes in the coalface's main body. the screw holes should be perfectly aligned with the fan's mounting holes, if everything is sitting as it should. - Screw the fan in place. Just let the screw tap straight into the plastic, don't overtighten. You might need to use washers, depending on your fan. - Do the same for the other fan. - Lock the fan cover and the filter receptacle onto the main body - Fill the receptacle, put the lid on. - Done! All you need to do now is connect coalface to your chosen power source. <h3>Activated carbon:</h3> <h4>This part is very important! Please don't skip reading this.</h4> First and foremost, keep in mind the activated carbon will lose effectiveness over time and become spent eventually even by just being exposed to air, so it's a consumable which you'll need to replace. <b>Please make sure you source the right kind of activated carbon.</b> It needs to be the right type for air filtration, and it needs NOT to be acid activated. <b>Acid activated carbon has the potential to ruin your printer by oxidising its metal components.</b> That potentially includes expensive parts like linear rails or ball screws. I am not responsible for any damage caused by using incorrect types of carbon. For more info on the matter, check out the great explaination on the Nevermore github page https://github.com/nevermore3d/Nevermore_Micro#sourcing-the-proper-acid-free-carbon