Ytec3D Forum

Depowdering can be messy - even with a depowdering station (glove box + vacuum), you still need to clean out the vacuum bag to recycle the powder.

On my ZD5 station (came with the Z310+), I added a vortex dust collector from Oneida Air Systems (basically, just a specially designed plastic vortex creator bolted on top of a bucket), and I'm getting a much nicer powder recycling process.

The powder (about 95%) ends up in the bucket - not in the vacuum's filter bag! All I have to do is empty the bucket (and sift a bit) and it's ready to go back into the powder system.

Really?

I always thought that gypsum was way too fine for vortex dust collectors. Does it work to on all powders or are the finer powders separated less.

I've just started a long-term trial with it with my sugar powder - I'll be able to get a good feel for the separation characteristics in a week or so.

I am really curious to hear how it will handle different types of powders. In my design considerations I never considered a vortex because I was under the presumption that vortexes cannot handle powders as fine as gypsum, but if they can handle finer powders I can use them in future designs.

It worked pretty well with the short (~5kg) ZP-150 test I gave it. I'm going to wait till next Wednesday to pop the bag open for the sugar powder test of the vortex.

The majority (95%) of the powder went into the bucket, and there seemed to be no appreciable difference between the texture of the dust in the bucket vs the dust in the bag.

Again, initial impressions only here.

Now, as per the Oneida site, for fine powders they recommend two vortexes in series, and that should get all but 1% of the dust into the buckets, but I can survive with a 95% reclaim rate for now.