Achieving the highest quality polyester and nylon fibers requires selection of the right fiber filter media. We offer many filtration powder options for melt spun polymers.
Typical Melt Spun Polymers and Corresponding AMETEK Filtration Product
- Polyamide / Nylon – AMETEK DP-1 Product Line
- Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) / Polyester – AMETEK 316L or DP-1 Product Line
- Polypropylene – AMETEK 316L or DP-1 Product Line
- Custom Hot Polymer Filtration materials are offered for the most demanding applications
Precision Powders Provide Numerous Advantages Compared to Metallic Fibers, Sand, or Glass
- Outstanding continuity of spin operation
- Premium fiber quality through superior filtration
- Excellent volume performance due to robustness of metal powder
- Correct porosity and tortuosity in filtration media for maximum hot polymer shear enabled by our advanced water atomization technology
- No chemical reaction with polymer, eliminating any discoloration of the fiber
- Spin pack efficiency, quality and polymer filter cleaning (our exceptional quality removes superfine particles that can clog nozzles or break yarn leading to Fiber On Floor / FOF)
- Extreme control over Particle Size Distribution (PSD) control for optimized performance of each spin pack
- Cost effective
The highly irregular shapes of our fiber / hot polymer filtration powders lead to extremely high surface areas that maximize filtration of the polymer. This technology is extremely effective at shearing polymer micro-gels, as well as trapping foreign materials or impurities in the polymer melt. This ensures maximum cleanliness and quality of the polymer exiting the spin pack.
Exact control of polymer temperature is also critical to avoiding capillary breakage and dying differences in the fiber. Our sintered metal filter powders are inherently four times better conductors of heat than silica sand, so the temperature distribution within the spin pack is highly uniform.
Sizes
Our fiber / hot polymer filtration powder is screened to precise mesh sizes for optimum spinning quality and throughput. We offer a wide variety of sintered metal fiber powder sizes from coarse cuts to fine cuts and wide to very narrow distributions allowing you to optimize quality and cost of your fiber spinning operations. Typical sizes include: -200/+325M, -40/+100M, -325/+400M, -100/+200M, -25/+50M, -50/+70M, -140/+200M, -70/+100M, -35/+45M, and -30/+50M. We are happy to manufacture to any size specification you may desire in addition to the above.
The selected medium or combination of porous media filter elements used in the spin pack depends on the polymer and target product. Powder “cut” or size and grade depend on the type of polymer being spun and target fiber dimensions.
Custom mesh sizes and grades are not only available, but routinely produced. Please contact us for custom powder filter products.
Applications
Our fiber / hot polymer filtration powders are used in spin packs that convert bulk polymers to synthetic fibers for textiles, carpets, tire cord, airbags, and other applications. We supply porous filter material to customers across the globe for a large number of quality critical applications.
Process - Converting Polymers to Yarn
- Melt and extrude polymer chips
- Filter molten polymer in spin pack with metallic fiber powders
- Accumulate fiber on bobbin
- Stretch, twist, and wind fibers