The Filtration Equipment
Filtration is a process widely used in the pharmaceutical industry to separate solids from liquids and solids from gas; e.g. clarification of products and many other applications. I will demonstrate the principle of using a meta filter which is a machine which we use to filtrate under pressure.
The equipment consists of a main frame which has got rings all around; those rings are free to move, and the bed, the filter bed will be deposited around the rings. The system basically operates by sucking the suspension that you want to filter through a series of pipes; they are: 1) the inlet pipe through here, 2) the outlet pipe up here and there is another pipe here which I will demonstrate later which is called the 3) by-pass valve. This valve initially should be completely closed and the system will operate in and out, in a loop as I will demonstrate.
Initially the by-pass valve needs to be closed. The system will operate by the inlet and the outlet in a looping system. So to start with we need to prime the system by switching on the machine and inletting the water through the frame, expelling all the air that is at the moment inside the system. So let’s do this first. If there is air inside the system and inside the frame, you need first of all to prime the system by inletting water in a way in which I’m demonstrating to you here (pours water into the pipe leading to the reservoir). When you see water coming inside the frame you can replace the air that was inside by the water from the reservoir. In doing that you are allowing the water to circulate, and this will take a couple of minutes for the air to be expelled from the frame so you have a system running, in and out continuously.
