Hey everyone!
Today, Steam Factory announced the new Solv automatic IPA wash system. This device will attach to the Form Wash (or any wash system). I automatically monitors resin saturation and performs a distillation cycle on the IPA to refresh it. Number 1 focus on this system is safety, so this isn’t some kind of hacky fire hazard.
Check out more here: Solv
You can sign up for early access if interested. Official kickstarter starts Oct. 1.
This is pretty cool and definitely something this industry needs - would love to know more!!
is this going? i tried looking it up on Kickstarter, but couldn’t find it…
Thanks for checking!
We were advised to get a little further along on our development before launching our kickstarter. Targeting Jan 1 now.
Well everyone, after a lot of investigation and discussion with those with solvent recovery industry experience, the lift to make our Solv system is going to be just a bit more than we can justify. We knew there would be some regulatory and safety friction with our effort, but we were doing our best to design within a narrow enough classification that we wouldn’t have to go through the rigor required for “industrial” systems.
That’s not the case.
The challenge is heating the IPA. Not even to it’s boiling point. Any potential for vaporization would classify this device differently and requires significant structural accomodations that would push the cost per unit beyond what we feel the market would be able to cover.
The idea isn’t dead, however. We may be able to adapt existing machinery that is already on the market that could interface with a parts washing system.
Instead, we are going to pivot and work on a system to polish the IPA. One thing I’ve noticed with our wash system is that adding fresh IPA can significanlty increase time between washes. The real issue is cleaning the pigments and other contaminants (like broken supports) from the IPA. This won’t help with saturation, but combined with refresh from a buffer tank can extend its life considerably.