Application Cases of Small Plate-and-Frame Filter Presses in European Industrial R&D Centers

This private technology center located in Northern Europe, specializing in the research and development of industrial solid-liquid separation technology, has long provided third-party services such as filtration process testing and equipment selection verification for small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in the surrounding area. Previously, the laboratory of this center only had several sets of small vacuum filtration devices. Facing the increasingly diverse material testing requirements from customers, the shortcomings of the equipment gradually became apparent: The characteristics of the chemical slurries, food raw materials, industrial sludges and other materials sent by different customers varied greatly. The original equipment not only had low processing efficiency, but the test data obtained deviated from the actual operating parameters of industrial large-scale machines by up to 30%, and often led to situations where the laboratory tests were qualified but the production did not meet the standards after going online. Customers reported more and more problems.

Meanwhile, the laboratory area of this center is quite limited, making it impossible to directly purchase conventional medium-sized industrial filter presses for small-scale tests. Moreover, such large-scale machines have high procurement costs and complex debugging procedures, and are completely unsuitable for the testing scenarios where different materials need to be changed frequently. In the second half of 2024, the center clearly stated its procurement requirements: It needs a small plate-and-frame filter equipment with a compact size, capable of accommodating various materials, and whose test data can be directly connected to industrial machines, in order to fill the testing capability gap of the existing laboratory.

The R&D center reached out to us. After detailed discussions on their high-frequency testing scenarios, material types, space limitations, etc., we customized an upgraded small plate-frame filter press of 0.8 square meters for them: Based on the standard model, we added an easily removable filter plate support structure, equipped with 5 different precision filter cloths, and at the same time, for the weakly corrosive materials they frequently handle, we polished and passivated all the stainless steel contact components, further enhancing the wear resistance and corrosion resistance.

After the equipment arrived at the site, our technical staff completed the entire process operation training via remote video. From filter plate assembly, pressure calibration, parameter adjustment for different materials to daily maintenance and care, the entire process was completed within 1.5 hours, and the delivery was successfully implemented without the need for additional local engineers to come and install. This significantly shortened the delivery cycle.

Six months after the equipment was put into use, we received a complete usage feedback from the research and development center:

The original 2-hour material test for a single batch can now be completed in as little as 20 minutes. The number of test projects that a single device can handle per month has increased from the original 12 to 45. The test efficiency has directly tripled. More importantly, the deviation between the test data produced by the new equipment and the actual operating parameters of the industrial-grade plate and frame filter press is controlled within 8%, fully meeting the reference standards for process selection. Nearly 30 customer projects that completed tests using this equipment have all been successfully launched and met the standards without any parameter mismatch issues.

The fully 304 stainless steel polished structure of the equipment, after processing different types of materials for 6 consecutive months, did not experience any clogging, corrosion, or leakage. After each test, it only requires a simple rinse to switch to the next type of material, fully meeting the usage requirements of the third-party testing center for frequent sample changes.