A Filter Press is composed of a support structure holding a series of recessed plates lined with filter cloths. Hydraulic pressure is used to hold the recessed plates tightly together, creating a seal around their perimeters and void spaces between the plates. A high-pressure slurry dewatering pump forces slurry into the empty chamber spaces between the plates for dewatering. The slurry solids are captured between the plates, while the clean filtrate water passes through the filter cloth mesh and exits through ports in the filter plates. When the chamber spaces are full of dewatered slurry solids, the slurry feed pump is automatically stopped. The hydraulic pressure holding the plates together is released so the plates can be separated individually, allowing the dewatered solid material cakes to fall by gravity out of the press.
Many people think the filter plates are squeezed together to expel water, but the press never moves during the time of dewatering. The only movements involved occur when the plates separate to expel the dry cakes or close to begin a new process cycle. Plates simply connect to form a seal under hydraulic pressure while the feed pump supplies the necessary pressure to dewater the fine solids.
Filter Presses are designed for simple and limited movement. This design leads to high-levels of automation and reliability. Compared to competing dewatering technologies, higher levels of water removal can be achieved with the Filter Press because the material being dewatered is captured between the recessed plates under the highest possible pump pressures. The Filter Press is also designed for the specific application by selecting the cycle times, cake thickness, feed pressures and plate styles to achieve optimum dewatering efficiencies.
