Fume Removal, Please Help

[Tom Winters]

We have a Mimaki Wide Format Printer that we just upgraded the ink system to go from the single cartridge setup to the bulking system. Now due to the new system, the fumes of the ink are overpowering the printer's room. We have a fan system hooked up to vent the fumes to an outside source (50ft of tubing). Still no help.

I have been looking into the carbon filtration purifiers and so far for me to go that route would be quite expensive. Would a stronger fan/blower (1hp +) retrofitted in my already ran exhaust system help?

If not, are there any other suggestions or is there any place that sells the air purifiers at a remotely reasonable price?

Thanks.

[Joe Pelonio]

The distance is your problem, you need to either shorten it a lot or get a bigger fan and larger diameter duct, like 8". Any chance of moving it near an outside wall?

[Thomas Bank]

You can only push air so far with a given fan - but the same fan will pull air a much further distance. You can get inline fans for ducts and stick one at the exit end of the duct to likely solve your problems.

[Brian Stoddard]

Back when I had an HP solvent, we had no luck with the stock venting even after adding inline fans. We ended up building a long shallow box that we placed several fans into. That was attached to the printer stand and vented out with more hoses - it worked well since the fumes are heavier than air they drop and are sucked out. The problem was made eve worse when we used the dryer unit that rolls up to the machine but solved that by adding skirting around it to basically seal it to the printer and contain the fumes.

Wish I had pics for you but I sold that biz, and the fumes

[Doug Bergstrom]

We have a similar system. Get the Duster 2000 from Island Clean Air. Cleans the air and doesn't need to vent outside. Our system works great. No smell from the inks or laser.

[Tom Winters]

Thank you guys for all the help. I was getting a little too high off of all the fumes in the office. I found a company that was getting rid of the HP 9000 air purification system for cheap. The purification system retails for about 4 - 5 thousand dollars. I got it for half. And the unit has only used 17% of the carbon inside. We have it up and running now, and the triangle bulk ink system that we have on our Mimaki is no longer giving me a headache. I bought 2 extra of these HP 9000 systems because of the deal. I am just going to hold on to them for a bit. I am sure someone down the line will need one, and I can be there to help them out. If there is anyone interested let me know.... Thanks again guys, I think I just got lucky.