Slight disturbances in flow rate, casual increases in residue in the final product, easy-to-forget upticks in cleanings. You may not notice the small things at first, but slowly these small issues will become a more prominent one: failure in your woven wire mesh filter.
While woven wire mesh filters are designed to deliver tailored filtration performance, they are not immune to wear and tear. For this reason, you must be proactive when it comes to replacing filters that have become too worn to provide the intended performance.
But how do you know when it's time for replacement? What are the signs?
To help you best recognize the critical warnings that your filter needs to be replaced before the small disruptions become costly issues, W.S. Tyler strives to share the experience we’ve developed over the past 150 years to be the trusted partner you need to operate with confidence and unparalleled efficiency.
With that, this article will highlight 5 of the most common telltale signs that your filter needs to be replaced. You will learn:
What Is a Woven Wire Mesh Filter?
A woven wire mesh filter is best defined as a filter component constructed by first weaving metal wires into a grid-like weave, then fabricating the weaves into custom parts proprietary to your equipment. Versatile in nature, woven wire mesh filters can be found screening particles from liquids, gases, and powder across countless applications.
Offering unmatched performance, woven wire mesh filters are outfitted with uniform pore openings that afford the perfect balance of strength, durability, and particle retention.
Virtually every aspect of woven wire mesh can be altered to ensure the specific needs of your filter system. This includes parameters like wire diameter, weave type, alloy, and mesh count.
This goes to say that, whether utilized as a standalone filter element or paired with more complex filtration systems, woven wire mesh is key when accuracy and consistency are non-negotiable.
Why It's Important To Replace Your Woven Wire Mesh Filters
When well-kept and in pristine condition, woven wire mesh filters are at the foundation of consistent product quality, equipment longevity, and efficient operation. That said, despite their metal construction, wear and tear are inevitable.
Exposure to harsh chemicals, pressure load variations, and abrasive materials all contribute to performance degradation.
Failing to replace a woven wire filter once wear and tear have taken their toll can have substantial consequences. Instances of increased contamination, pressure drop inconsistencies, and disruptions in flow rates are all results of continuous use of compromised wire mesh filters.
Each of these instances can collectively lead to things like production contamination, a reduction in product quality, increased stress on equipment, and increased energy consumption. More severe concerns include regulatory compliance issues and costly product recalls.
So, put simply, replacing your woven wire mesh filters is the best way to avoid production disruptions, maintain optimal filtration performance, and protect your brand.
The 5 Signs It's Time To Replace Your Woven Wire Mesh Filters
Despite being designed to withstand various levels of heat, pressure, flow, and corrosive exposure, these very elements ultimately degrade the characteristics of woven wire mesh. Neglecting to acknowledge this degradation and replace the filter can deeply impact filtration performance, production efficiency, and product quality.
With that in mind, there are five key identifiers you can use to determine when it's time to replace your wire mesh filter. These include inconsistent filtration performance, visible damage, increased pressure drop, frequent cleaning, and product quality fluctuations.
1. Inconsistent Filtration Performance
As woven wire mesh filters degrade, issues like higher levels of contamination, inconsistent filtration, or particle retention issues occur. These issues often cause poor filtration efficiency, which can compromise the quality of the end product.
This ultimately leads to costly downtime and regulatory issues.
With that, if you notice your filter is no longer capturing particles as intended, replacement is necessary. Failure to do so puts your operation, your brand, and, most importantly, customer safety at risk.
2. Visible Damage
You should always be on the lookout for blemishes throughout your woven wire mesh filters. These include fraying, broken wires, corrosion, and distorted mesh.
Even the smallest of misalignments in the weave can allow unwanted particles to pass and cause issues downstream. That goes to say that damage can lead to failed inspections, product recalls, and costly downtime.
3. Increased Pressure Drop
One of the easiest ways to determine that a woven wire mesh filter needs to be replaced is a substantial rise in pressure. This is especially true if high-pressure loads recur after a thorough cleaning.
This pressure can cause increased stress on your system, increase energy consumption, and hinder throughput. Replacement will more than likely result in an immediate spike in productivity with a reduction in operational stress.
4. Frequent Cleaning
If you find yourself cleaning your woven wire mesh filter more frequently with little to no improvement in performance, odds are the filter will need to be replaced in the near future. While designed for prolonged use, wire mesh filters will become fouled, leaving the pore openings pegged or blinded.
That said, spending too much time and labor constantly cleaning a filter in attempts to bring it back to like-new performance can prove costly. As time goes on and cleaning efforts increase, replacement becomes a more relevant and reliable option.
5. Product Quality Fluctuations
Another prominent calling sign that your woven wire mesh filter is in need of replacement is inconsistencies in product quality. It goes without saying that your products are only as good as the performance of your filters.
Knowing that, a sudden shift in properties like product clarity, texture, concentration, or composition is, more often than not, a sign that your wire mesh filter needs to be replaced. Being proactive when product quality fluctuates is an easy way to preserve your brand reputation, customer satisfaction, and production deadlines.
Using Filter Replacement To Upgrade Your Process
Woven wire mesh filter replacement should be seen as an opportunity to optimize your process, not just a means of restoring functionality. Integrating woven wire mesh filters with advanced weaves, hand-picked alloys, and refined characteristics empowers you to enhance operational performance, while reducing maintenance requirements and improving product quality.
In other words, you should use this time to evaluate the pitfalls of your operation and use these insights to rehaul your filter design. This can be done by asking questions like: Has production volume increased? Have the properties of the material I’m working with changed? Am I spending too many resources on troublesome downtime?
These are the questions that will lead you toward a filter solution that is more tailored to your specific needs than ever before. To streamline this refinement, it is recommended that you partner with a woven wire mesh expert who can help you uncover how you can best utilize the versatile material to reduce energy costs, increase filtration capacity, and extend the lifespan of your filters.
Optimize Your Wire Mesh Filter to Complement Your Production Line
Understanding the calling signs that signify the need to replace your woven wire mesh filter is a key component to combating costly downtime, product contamination, and premature equipment wear. Tending to the warning signs early will allow you to maintain peak performance and keep your system running smoothly.
But knowing when to replace your woven wire mesh filter is just the tip of the iceberg. When redesigning your replacement filter, it is critical to ensure it is a glove-fit for your operation.
Doing so requires you to analyze the particles passing through your production line.
Here at W.S. Tyler, our mission is simple: leverage our 150 years of wire mesh experience to help you make the informed decisions needed to achieve industry-leading industrial filtration.
To learn more about how you can fine-tune your woven wire mesh filters to best accommodate your process, read the article below: