The principal of operation is to consolidate liquid sludge into a considerably reduced volume. The effect is to minimise sludge quantities to provide minimal handling and transportation costs.

The Fil-TekTM (Edwards & Jones) press employs a steel frame engineered to support a pack of filter plates, which are available in a variety of styles and materials to suit the specific application. Each plate is lined with a filter cloth, which capture the solids allowing the clear filtrate to escape through pipped channels on the plate surface. A hydraulic cylinder is used to clamp and seal the individual plates together and the coming together of recesses on the plates form a series of chambers. As the sludge is pumped into the press, the solids are retained by the filter cloths within the chambers allowing the free water to discharge via galleries within the plate. Each chamber gradually fills forming a cake. This gives rise to an increase in feed pumping pressure. The filling cycle is complete when no further sludge can be pumped into the press. The press is then opened and the plates separated allowing the cake to discharge.

As a result of the highly efficient filtration capability, the unit offers unrivalled filtrate quality.

The Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (VWS) Fil-TekTM high performance sludge dewatering system provides a cost effective and reliable means of dewatering municipal and industrial sludges.

The filter press will almost always produce a much drier cake than alternative forms of dewatering. This can have a dramatic effect on the economics of a process, particularly where the product requires additional thermal drying.

Benefits

• Low power and polymer consumption
• Reduced transport costs
• Automatic, batch operation
• Highest possible cake dry solids
• Optimal dewatering from plate and cloth selection
• Simple operation and maintenance

Highest filtrate quality and liquor recovery

Features

• Construction - solid, durable construction designed to 7, 10, 15 and 20 pressure bar ratings.
• Hydraulic closing mechanism - optimum closing load management and control
• Plate separator - fully automated to increase cake discharge rate through its positive separation action
• Cloth washer (optional) - highly-efficient wash system with automatic engagement and run sequence, integral with plate separator
• Control system - P.L.C. provides highly flexible programming, and a local control panel is mounted for maintenance purposes.

Range of sizes are available to meet all your sludge dewatering needs (please see the Technical Details page for sizes).

VWS has produced 'Fletcher Filtration' membrane plates at its plant in Mirfield UK since the 1970's, which provide the following benefits:

• unrestricted entry into the chamber helps prevent coring
• no staybosses on plates smaller than 1500mm square and only 4 on larger sizes
• resilient moulded rubber covering on membrane body and recess plates give complete protection against chemical attack
• suitable for air or water inflation with no restrictions to rate of inflation or final cake thickness
• use of barrel necked filter cloth ensures minimum downtime for cloth changing

For over 125 years the innovation and dedication from veolia water solutions & technologies has helped establish us as world leaders. As a result of this dedication and experience, we have, for over 30 years, been successfully producing and supplying a wide range of steel reinforced, rubber moulded filter press plates for the municipal and industrial filtration markets.

Today, our innovation and quality of the finished product through professional design, material and craftsmanship, have helped establish us as world leaders in the manufacture of rubber moulded filter plates. Now we transport high quality solutions across the world, with customers in the Water and Waste, Chemical, Ceramic, Mining, Brewing and Food industries.

The exceptional features and a proven reliability of the Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies filter plate portfolio make the filtration process far easier and more cost-effective. In fact, whatever your rubber moulded filter plate requirements, we have the necessary experience required to meet your specific demands and ensure your plant runs smoothly and efficiently, both today and tomorrow.

Veolia water solutions & technologies successfully produces three types of plate: replaceable diaphragm, recessed chamber and plate and frame - all steel reinforced for strength.

Replaceable Diaphragm Plates

Steel reinforced, rubber moulded diaphragm plates offer a unique combination of a high-strength filter plate body with a fully replaceable rubber diaphragm. These properties allow high squeeze pressures resulting in efficient process cycle times and, in arduous applications, the ease of replacement of the diaphragm minimises downtime when they need to be changed.

The plates are available in a standard range of sizes from 500mm sq. to 2000mm sq. and can be engineered for use in either sidebar or overhead beam presses. The automated design and manufacturing facility allows designs to be easily modified and plates can be retrofitted to most makes of filter press.

The replaceable diaphragm is located in the body by a simple sealing system and clamped through the centre feed with a corrosion resistant clamp ring. The clamp and diaphragm materials can be selected from a range of materials to provide optimum performance for different applications and the plates can be designed for either air or water as the inflation media.

The plates are manufactured using a carbon steel core completely encased in moulded rubber, making them exceptionally strong, in order to resist differential pressures. The diaphragms can also withstand extensive elongation and high squeeze pressures that are likely to occur under normal conditions. A number of rubber grades are also offered to suit most process conditions. The perimeter leg seals into a moulded groove on the body plate, while a wider sealing gasket on the adjacent recessed chamber plate retains the diaphragm.

Recessed Chamber Plates

The SRRM recessed chamber plate delivers the same mechanical strength and resilient rubber covering as the diaphragm plates to resist acidic and alkaline conditions. Filtrate take-off can be either internal via corner ports or external from the side edge of the plate. A full size range is available from 500mm sq. through to 2000mm sq. and can be retrofitted to either sidebar or overhead beam filter presses.

Plates and Frames

SRRM plates and frames are also offered as part of the product range, particularly where fine particle sizes require the use of filter papers over cloth. Moulds are available for a number of popular sizes.

Superior Filtration Surface

The cylindrical pip filtration surface, pioneered by Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, offers a 60% free drainage area behind the filter cloth, as well as extending the cloth life.