3M’s housing solutions solve problems for customers in a variety of manufacturing sectors, the oil and gas industry and food and beverage processing. Manufacturers’ Monthly finds out why the DuoFLO bag technology is fit for a broad range of environments.
The Separation and Purification Sciences Division at 3M has been designing and manufacturing filtration technologies for more than 60 years.
The company has a storied history with manufacturing research and development, initially founded in the United States in 1902 – the Abrasive Cloth was an exclusive product that launched its success in 1916.
In 1969, 3M products were used by astronauts in the first moon landing, including 3M Fluorel Elastomer, a synthetic rubber used in the astronaut’s boots worn inside the space capsule.
Today, 3M’s Australian Separation and Purification Sciences Division provides general industrial filtration for municipal, oil and gas, chemical, water treatment, process water and more.
Heading 3M’s Industrials Sales team in WA, Malcolm Hawks has a wealth of knowledge in filtration, having worked in the industry for 25 years. He explained the premise of the DuoFLO (DF) bag technology.
“DF is a little bit different to most bag filters because it’s a double-layered bag,” he said. “You can solve the nature of different issues with different technologies, but experience tells me the DF is a very good option in many applications.”
3M DF series media consists of 2 layers – the first layer or upstream zone is “open” to reduce the larger contaminant while the downstream zone is “tighter” to reduce the smaller contaminant. This design provides greater contaminant holding capacity and longer life than conventional single layer media.
Hawks explained that the DF technology is an excellent option when there is lack of known data about the type of contaminant and the percentage of suspended solids. DF fits very well between strainers and cartridges as a suitable and reliable filtration method.
DF bags are an inexpensive option for high flow rates with a small footprint, are easy to use and have simple and quick change-out of filters.
“The DuoFLO is a good product because it addresses that wide range – it is inexpensive enough that you can use it either as a pre filter to the high flow or as a general use filter that gives you a lot of scope, going from 200 all the way down to one micron in size.
“If the manufacturer thinks the problem is with 150 micron particles, but the fluid is still coming through dirty, they can adjust to 50 microns and then down again to 25. In my experience the 3M DF Technology is an excellent filtration option in these circumstances.”
To put the filtration process into perspective, one micron is a 1,000th of a millimetre and a grain of sand is about 50 microns.
In the Australian market, the DF range is used a lot in craft brewing and chemical industrial manufacturing because they are batch processes. In filtration, there’s classifying filters and clarifying filters. In beer and wine production, for example, filtration takes out a certain amount of particulate or contaminate out of the product, however it doesn’t take the colour out of the product.
Another key advantage of the DF range is the increased surface area of 62 per cent that it provides compared to a standard bag or sock filter.
The extra layers of filter media allows a longer service life between bag changes which minimises productivity loss, labour cost, disposal cost and less frequent operator exposure to potential harmful fluids. This was seen in a recent project 3M had with a liquid fertiliser manufacturer, whose products are used for crops in the agriculture space.
The DuoFLO graded porosity media.
“The product itself, the liquid fertiliser, comes in usually as a powder form in large 1000 litre bags or even sea containers of powder from overseas. And then it comes into Australia and it’s blended by the local liquid fertiliser companies,” Hawks explained.
“The issue for this client was that in this powder form, there’s all sorts of particles that are in there – sand, grit, hairs, bits of rubber, whatever can be picked up at a source overseas.”
3M does have the capability to do initial screening of the product, but in this case its expertise came at the second stage where the business blended the powder with water to make the fertiliser.
The fluid is mixed in a blending tank, and then it needs to be filtered to a certain level – usually around 100 microns.
When changing filter bags, the hold- up volume in the DF bag is 67 per cent less than a standard bag.
“When you pull the filter out, you don’t lose nearly as much of the valuable fluid,” he said.
“It may hold 100 ml of unfiltered fluid compared to 300 ml in a standard bag, for example. This is important with higher value fluid in the beer, wine and chemical environments.”
The 3MTM DF series element is comprised of two cylinders bonded to a top plate and a lower seal plate. The 3MTM DF series design incorporates an innovative new geometry of both filter element and restrainer basket which provides 100 per cent three dimensional support of the 3MTM DF series media.
“The in-line bottom inlet and outlet provides easy and cost-effective installation by reducing the complexity of the piping scheme which means it’s easy to add on more housings if required,” Hawks noted.
The advantages of the 3M DuoFLO bag technology comes down to four main points:
- Up to 3 times or more the service life
- Superior contaminant reduction efficiency
- Enhanced flow per filter element
- Reduced costs associated with frequent filter change-outs, (production downtime, disposal, and labour costs)
The intricate design has led to real results for customers. Hawks has seen it time and again when working closely with different businesses.
“It’s a go-to product and is a safe option, which gives me comfort that we’re providing a solution which will work for the customer.”