I'm working to create a fume filter for a laser cutter at a local non-profit. The laser cutter is on the ground floor of a residential building, and excessive usage by some of the members has made the laser an unwelcome pest.

High MIRV furnace filters may do the job but have a high replacement cost. Research shows that electrostatic filtering may be very effective at reducing objectionable odors. Honeywell "electronic air filter" cells are available used at a reasonable cost but the racks, which contains the high voltage power supply aren't available at a reasonable cost.

The power supply puts out 14KV and 8KV (at small current). Solid state neon sign transformers are available in this range at a reasonable cost, and I have a 9KV model in hand.

So to the point. Can I use neon sign transformers, with a HV diode or bridge and maybe a filter cap to supply power to the electrostatic filter cells? It seems reasonable to do so, but I can find no references of anybody actually doing it.

Also, if you have any experience filtering laser cutter exhaust, I'd love to hear what's worked and what has not.

 

Further compounding my task is that the laser is located in a wood working shop. Clearly, the unfiltered air intake hasn't helped previous efforts using high MIRV filters. The fine sawdust clogs filters fast. We'll be filtering the intake air and/or plumbing the intake out of the shop.

 

This sounds very dangerous.
Not only the risk of electric shock with the high voltages involved but the risk of explosion caused by sparks/discharges in an atmosphere of inflammable dust.
Stick with passive filters and/or venting to outside.

 

Thank you for your input. The technology is well proven, and is in fact widely used in saw mills.

The amount of sawdust we're talking about is tiny, particularly after we add input filtering. It's only large in terms of clogging a high MERV (sorry I've been misspelling that) filter.

 

Those electronic "transformers" are quite amazing. I have one and it certainly does deliver the high voltage . Probably the diode could be added inside the package. But I am not sure the filters would actually remove the smoke..
One alternative could be OZONE generators. The ones that use mercury vapor light bulbs with a second lightulb are the moset effective that I have found, but mercury ozone bulbes are probably not available legally any more.