Filter cloths are a key ingredient to optimizing your filter press operation.
Getting the most from the cloth in your filter press operation begins, of course, with ensuring that the filter cloth utilized is the correct choice of material for your operating conditions. Micronics’ experts can help with filter cloth material selection recommendations and troubleshooting. We will help to optimize the cloth characteristics including material, yarn fibers and weave, pore size, fabric finishing, feed neck design, and other factors to match your process.
Filter cloth life is shortened by mechanical damage which may be caused by chemical attack, mechanical abrasion, or both. Cloth life is also shortened when the material being filtered clogs or blinds the filter cloths, impacting porosity and no longer allowing the filtrate to properly flow.
There are many factors affecting cloth performance including:
- Application
- Material being filtered and the nature of the slurry, e.g. whether the particles in the slurry are coarse or dense
- Operating conditions
- Effectiveness of cake discharge mechanisms
- How frequently and effectively you are cleaning your filter cloth
Even filter cloth that is the correct design for your operating conditions will eventually have to be replaced. Timeframes can vary significantly depending upon the aforementioned factors.
This filter cloth showing poor cake release is in need of replacement
In contrast, this filter cloth has no cake residue
Some telltale signs that your filter cloth may need replacing include:
- Your filtration cycle times are getting longer
- Your filter cake has become progressively wetter and sloppier and is insufficiently dry/solid
- You see impurities in the filtrate, i.e. the filtrate is no longer clear
- You see holes in the filter cloth
Remember that when using a filter press for liquid-solid separation, your filter cloths are the key, front line, ingredient for an effective, efficient dewatering operation. Contact us so that we may assist you in selecting the right filter cloths for your operating conditions to optimize cloth life. We will help you with speedy and correct filter cloth replacement from our extensive inventory of standard and custom materials suited to your markets and applications. Micronics is here to help you operate your filter press at peak efficiency.
The post How Do I Know When My Filter Cloths Need to be Changed? appeared first on Micronics, Inc.