Membrane Support

A systems manufacturer leans on Porex for a membrane support-tube design that avoids membrane de-lamination in traditional cross-flow filtration applications. Porex’s structural design solves this quality issue, plus provides other functional and competitive advantages.

Design Challenge:
Porex was challenged to develop a 6 foot x 0.5 inch inside diameter membrane support tube that would avoid membrane de-lamination in a traditional cross-flow filtration application. Traditional approaches whereby the membrane was laminated to the support tube often times resulted in de-lamination along the tubes welded seam - presenting a major quality problem to system manufacturers. Accordingly, Porex was asked to develop an improved support structure.

Solution:
Porex engineers saw that a molded tube could replace the existing welded tube and drastically improve the de-lamination quality issues by eliminating the weld seam where no membrane attachment could occur. However, to produce a tube to the established concentricity specifications required, the development of a new and improved manufacturing process. Through the collective effort of Porex’s development and manufacturing engineering departments, Porex successfully developed a reliable and efficient manufacturing process that provided a molded HPDE 10-foot x 0.5 inch (internal diameter) tube.

Result:
The design provided by Porex greatly reduced quality issues with membrane de-lamination. At the same time, the optional design change to the longer, smaller I.D. tube provided more space for additional tubes allowing greater filtration through put in the same size system, a compelling competitive advantage.

Click here to download a pdf version of this case study