Filter maintenance - don't get steamed up

If you use steam in your hygienic cleaning processes, you’ll be using sintered steel filters. Now, though, there’s a much more cost-effective alternative.

If you use steam in your hygienic cleaning processes, you’ll be using sintered steel filters. Now, though, there’s a much more cost-effective alternative.

In the food industry, as in several other sectors, plant managers like to – quite literally - let off steam very frequently. That’s because steam is used for a variety of key functions throughout a typical plant. It’s an efficient and economical method of sterilisation, for example, due to its ability to de-activate or kill micro-organisms. This, of course, means that the steam itself must be kept clean, a process in which filters play a key role. This, in turn, leads to yet another cleaning process – the sterilisation of the filters themselves. This is a maintenance necessity that can involve significant time and cost.

Obviously, then, anything that could help reduce this cost would be welcomed by the industry. Which is why, if you make use of steam in your cleaning regimes, you’ll want to know about a new filter from Donaldson. It’s a product which can help you not only cut costs directly associated with filter maintenance, but will reduce energy usage, too. And, as if that’s not enough to tempt you into reading on, it also offers a lifetime up to three times longer than conventional products, and will increase the efficiency of your entire process.

You’re likely, of course, to need little introduction to Donaldson. After all, the company is a leading worldwide provider of filtration solutions, and already offers a variety of compressed air and process filtration systems. This latest addition to its portfolio, though, is of particular interest. Why? Because, as a high-performance steam filter with high dirt holding capacity, it features a unique design that could easily make it the de facto standard for steam applications in hygienic environments. For those who like to name names, it’s called the Donaldson Ultrafilter (P)-GS N steam filter.

So, what makes the (P)-GS N so special? Let’s start with its performance. Saying that the product has a “high dirt holding capacity” hardly does it justice. It retains contaminants, such as valve and sealing residues and rust, with a retention efficiency greater than 99.9 % for particulates at one, five and twenty-five microns, at a very low differential pressure and high flow rate. In fact, the new filter medium ensures that even particles down to 10nm are removed with an efficiency greater than 99.995%.

This dirt retention performance means the new Donaldson filter offers real economic advantages over traditional sintered steel products. Easily retro-fitted into existing housings, it will deliver immediate savings to users, as its lifecycle is up to three times longer than conventional products. This has an obvious implication for maintenance budgets. In fact, the typical cost of outsourced filter regeneration is around £60 per element, so you could save up to £180 per cycle! And there’s good news, too, for those installing systems from scratch, because the new filter is physically smaller – by around 35% - than other products, so the size and cost of the housing is correspondingly lower. This gives users the option of reducing capital cost without increasing the running cost, compared to conventional filters.

And there’s more. All components of the (P)-GS N meet the US and EU requirements for food contact use in accordance with CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Title 21 and the 1935/2004/EC. The filter is manufactured in accordance with the manufacturing requirements, has no migration of filter media and is non-fibre releasing.

The verdict? Based on its low differential pressure, its dirt holding capacity and long service life, the (P)-GS N filter represents an extremely cost-efficient alternative to conventional sintered steel steam filters. If you’d like to know more about how you could use them in your application, ERIKS’ know-how is here to help. We’re just a phone call or an email away.