ISSN: 2319-8753 International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization) Vol. 2, Issue 10, October 2013 Copyright to IJIRSET www.ijirset.com 5774 DISPOSABLE FILTERS - A REVIEW Mrs. Pragnya S.Kanade Associate Professor, Textile Engg. Dept., Faculty of Tech. & Engg., M.S.University of Baroda, Vadodara, India Abstract: Filtration is removal of particles from fluid by passing it through a permeable media. The device used to achieve this is known as a filter. The range of fluids used in chemical processing covers a vast spectrum from paint to food, to fine chemicals. Each filter has its own merits and demerits and is applicable for a certain filtration range; some can be used as pre-filters while some have very good dirt holding capacity. Any single type of filter may not be suitable for the removal of different types of contaminants and that too of wide particle size range. Large variety of disposable filters are available like melt blown filters, cartridge filters, pleated filters, spun bonded filters etc. Hence filters produced with different techniques are available from which to choose as per requirement of the process and different types of filtration procedures for testing them. This paper gives a review of the popular category of disposable filters available in the market with their application range. Keywords: contaminants, filtration, trapping mechanism, melt blown filters, string wound cartridges, pleated filters I. INTRODUCTION The type and nature of contaminants in the slurry to which a filter may be subjected when used in field is unknown. If the particle size of known elements is taken in to account like human hair is of 75 m, or the smallest pencil dot a human eye can see is of 40 m. In the micro organism’s category, a yeast cell is of 3 m or a common bacterium is of 0.2 m. These dimensions given here have been given to make it clear that the fluids which need to be filtered may contain contaminants of variable sizes, including those which may or may not be - visible by eye, flexible or living. Depending upon the targeted particle size to be removed, the entire filtration process can be classified as micro filtration, ultra filtration and reverse osmosis in the increasing capacity of trapping power of smaller particle sizes. Figure 2 shows the micron (m) range for the three different types of filtration which are very common in this field. 0.0001m - 0.001m 0.2m 0m-100m 1A 0 ---------- 10A 0 -------- 200A 0  --------- 100,000A 0 Reverse Osmosis Ultra filtration Micro filtration Figure 2 shows particle size removal ranges of various types of filtration [1] II. NATURE OF CONTAMINANT AND FILTRATION CHARACTERISTICS Contaminants within these fluids fall into three categories: 1 Solids such as sand grit and pipe scale. 2 Gelatinous particles formed in the mixing process. 3 Fibres from hairs and packing materials. Solids are relatively easy to remove from a fluid. Flexible contaminants including fibres are not always easily removed because they sometimes can squeeze and make their way through the filter structure. The most difficult to remove are deformable gels. These have the ability to blind a filter by smearing over its surface. At high pressure drop, gels also can be extruded through the filter structure. They are best removed if filter media with gradual decreasing pore size is used. String wound cartridges are suitable to remove all of the three mentioned contaminants.