If you’re frustrated because your fiberglass or woven wire filters are underperforming and causing an increase in mechanical breakdowns, then it’s time to put an end to your irritation. Make the switch to all-metal filters from Fluid Conditioning Products! We use sintered metal fiber in our all-metal filters, making them more robust, highly efficient, and longer-lasting than low-cost media like glass fiber.
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The result is better filtration of your water, hydraulic, or oil systems, so impurities don’t cause a premature breakdown or excessive wear of your machinery. For over 70 years, FCP has been a leader in the filtration business and serves customers in some of the most highly demanding and challenging fields, like the U.S. Military, commercial aerospace, and marine companies.
Learn how sintered metal fiber felt aids in the filtration process and get a quote today to get started on solving your filtration frustrations.
Sintered metal fiber felt is a non-woven filter medium made by selectively laying and compressing fine metal fibers together and then bonding through the sintering process. High-temperature sintering ensures a uniform filter element that performs far better than legacy materials like glass fiber.
In addition to outperforming fiberglass, sintered metal fibers are very strong, corrosion-resistant, and able to withstand high temperatures and stress in some of the most challenging environments. The material is versatile and can be welded and folded into different shapes. It’s usually layered with standard wire mesh to create the desired performance in a filter element.
While there are many uses for sintered metal fiber, filtration is where this material shines. Its high porosity increases permeability up to 20 times compared to other media types. You can add the fiber felt as a single layer on a sintered filter element or sintered mesh. Alternatively, you can bond multiple layers through sintering to create a complete filter media.
It’s ideal for filtering gas and liquids, so it’s the perfect filter medium for the clients we serve here at FCP. Our metal fiber media has absolute filter ratings as low as 3 microns and will not shed or break like traditional fiberglass media. That’s why our all-metal filters are used in military jets and helicopters, commercial aerospace, and the marine industry.
Choosing sintered metal fiber felt as your filter medium is a wise choice. There are many advantages to using this type of media, including:
The fluid or gas passes through the filter, and the sintered metal fiber blocks and retains contaminants and prevents them from entering the system downstream. The particles cake on the surface of the media and continue collecting the pollutants. The more particles that build up on the surface of the filter, the more pressure drop increases until the filter reaches terminal pressure drop.
At FCP, we prefer to use the finest metal fiber available for our filter elements—Bekipor. It is the most reliable stainless steel fiber filtration media available with multiple compositions to guarantee the best fit for your application. The fibers can range from three microns to over 40 microns, depending on your needs.
We chose this product because it exhibits all the benefits aforementioned of using sintered fiber felt. The metal-to-metal bonds create a strong filtration media that you just can’t get from other materials.
Sintered metal fiber is just one component of our all-metal filters. Our filters reduce contamination in hydraulics systems up to 95% and decrease equipment failure rates across the board. All-metal mesh filters have realized savings in military aircraft as high as $4 million for every 100 hours of flight time.
Are you interested in learning more about stainless steel square wire mesh? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!
Porous metal materials, characterized by their porous structures, are innovative engineering materials that offer impressive strength while being light. These materials are used across different industries, including aerospace, metallurgy, mechanics, petrochemicals, energy, pharmaceuticals, architecture, and transportation. Their unique properties make them suitable for specialized applications, such as in life support systems, energy storage, hydrogen generation, and filtration systems.
Porous metal materials can be categorized into three types:
Unlike metal foams, which are typically created through a foaming process that introduces gas into metallic melts, sintered metal powders and fiber felts are formed by sintering compacted powders or laminated fibers, respectively.
These changes are vital for different applications, as they determine the material’s porosity, strength, and overall performance. Therefore, sintering plays a major role in achieving the properties needed for specific uses.
The different sintering stages show how loose metal powders transform into a solid object:
In the final stage of sintering, interconnected open pores close and turn into isolated closed pores. As this happens, grain growth occurs, which slows down the surface and bulk diffusion processes. Consequently, this stage becomes the slowest, as densification increases from 95% to 99%.
(SD: Surface Diffusion, VD: Vacancy Diffusion, GB: Grain Boundary Diffusion)
Conversely, the other three modes lead to densification: boundary diffusion, lattice diffusion from the grain boundary, and lattice diffusion from dislocation. To predict the sintering conditions necessary to achieve desired properties, sintering diagrams have been developed for different powders and wires. Originally, these diagrams were based on simple models, like the two-sphere model, which worked well for powders and wires. However, fiber felts, with their complex geometry, require a different approach.
Unlike in powders, where sintering occurs between particles bonded by van der Waals forces, sintering in fiber felts takes place in the joints between adjacent fibers at random angles. During the pressing or shaping of fibers, sintering joints primarily develop at points where fibers make contact. Under pressure, fibers interlock, forming many contact areas. These contact regions can be categorized as either fiber-to-fiber contact joints or fiber-to-fiber mechanical meshing.
During sintering, material migrates in fiber-to-fiber contact joints or mechanical meshing to reduce surface energy. Initially, sintering begins on microstructures’ surfaces, forming contact points between fibers, which then strengthen. This process continues across the fiber network, forming a mesh-like structure. In comparison to sintering powders, sintering metal fiber felts undergo less densification. This is because surface processes, grain growth, and neck growth mechanisms dominate over densification processes like grain boundary diffusion.
For instance, sintered metal fiber felts can have porosities as high as 98%, with pore sizes smaller than 10 µm. In the case of LINQCELL sintered titanium fiber felts, our products boast a tailored porosity level ranging from 50% to 80%. Additionally, sintered metal fiber felts exhibit a three-dimensional reticulated structure. This structure not only provides well-defined conductive paths but also offers controlled electrical conductivity-temperature characteristics. The high porosity and decreased electrical resistivity due to the rupture of joint fiber contacts after sintering make sintered metal fiber felt an excellent material for applications such as water electrolyzers and fuel cells.
Having said that… should we prefer sintered metal fiber felts over sintered metal powders? The answer lies within your target application. For example, water electrolyzer manufacturing typically can work with porous transport layers with porosities as low as 40% (something achievable using sintered metal powders). In contrast, fuel cells require gas diffusion layers with high porosities, and so sintered metal fibers will be more appropriate in that case.