High-Performance Filtration

YMAX is a fiber-wire composite made of 1.4401 or 1.4404 stainless steel. Constructed according to a corresponding composite principle, this innovation combines the properties of surface filtration with those of depth filtration in a single product. This makes the company able to achieve a combination of the advantages of two filter methods which were previously mutually exclusive: filtration using woven wire mesh or filtration by means of metal-fiber felt. In the past, while conventional woven wire mesh produced excellent surface filtration results in, for instance, precoat filtration, metal-fiber felt was the preferred choice for better performance in depth filtration.

YMAX offers tangible advantages in practice: in industrial applications, solid/liquid separation as well as hot-gas or polymer filtration will become more effective, longer-lasting and more precisely controllable.

High porosity and retention rates
The prime advantage of the woven fiber-wire construction is its high porosity of up to 60 percent. Compared, for example, with sintered woven metal structures, which have average porosities of 20 percent, YMAX can thus provide up to three times larger filter service. The product also has enormous dirt holding capacities and a high retention rate comparable to that of a high-performance metal-fiber felt.

Homogeneous pores
Built in contrast to a metal-fiber felt, the product has absolutely homogeneous pores and can thus guarantee identical, controllable filtration performance in all zones of the filter media. This performance is further optimized through the rapid flow-off of the filterate: even though the particle retention rate if very high, the drainage of liquids nevertheless functions smoothly. The reason for this is an openly woven support component on the underside of the composite construction.

Stable and flexible at the same time
Further decisive advantages of this filter innovation are its great mechanical stability and at the same time its flexibility. The company thus describes the woven structure of the product as extremely robust. Even under the effects of strong pressure or tension forces, the composite keeps its form precisely. Stretching or distortion do not occur under known production conditions. At the same time, the filter media shows a remarkable flexibility during tailoring. The product can even be pleated without problems. Once formed, it reliably retains even this shape.

With retention rates from 3µ to 100µ, seamless widths of up to 3.5 meters and in lengths of up to 20 meters, the product is a universal filter media for world-wide application. It is suitable for all kinds of mechanical filtration and can be supplied either in rolls or as finished filter elements.

GKD- Gebr. Kufferath GmbH & Co.KG, Metallweberstr. 46, 52353 Düren. Tel: +49 (24 21) 80 30; Fax: +49 (24 21) 80 32 11.