The Fimic   melt filter is a very effective and low maintenance way of filtering high contaminated plastic.

In the Fimic filter we have a scraper with two blades. The scraper is located on top of a stainless steel drilled screen. The scraper starts its cleaning cycle when the pressure in the chamber, because of the contamination clogging the screen’s holes, has reached a threshold. During its cycle, the scraper collects the contamination caught by the screen and stores it in its cavity. When the scraper stops, a valve, air or oil managed, opens to discharge the contaminants emptying the scraper’s cavity.

Differently from other filters, which discharge continuously through an auger, Fimic valve discharging system enables the equipment to manage higher level of contamination and to discharge only when needed. In fact, with this system the discharge takes place only when the valve opens, and this happens only when the scraping cycle is concluded.

The Fimic filter remains the machine with the shorter screen changing time compared to other automatic filters. The process takes about 30 minutes, with a frequency that can go from three days in a week to a maximum of once every 15 days. This obviously depends from the level of contamination in the material, whatever this contamination is, with no limits in the type of contamination: paper, wood, metal, sand, glass, rubber, aluminum, other types of polymers. The only thing for the customer to do, will be to choose the level of filtration among the wide range of offered possibilities (from 140 to 10 mesh, 100 to 2000 microns)!

A special note goes to the operating costs. Going from a manual screen changer to a Fimic automatic filter should enable a savings in the screens cost, that still represent an important item in the customers’ budget. The same can be said if comparing the Fimic filter to other automatic filters, that have, generally speaking, higher cost for screens and spare parts.

Fimic screens are made from punched stainless steel chromed sheets that can be easily found in the market, which costs is between 80 to 170 Euro, depending on the filter model, and can last an average of a week. If the required filtration goes below 300 microns/50 mesh, Fimic can offer laser-drilled screens that can be used, burned through a pyrolytic oven, and reused up to six times.

 Our machine is pretty simple, as you can see on the video on our web site (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2ebvq9BKQ0). Our filter has a large filter body with a screen with considerable filtering area. For example the model 500, that enables a throughput from 700  to 2.000 kg/h (depending on material, contamination and needed filtering level) has a filtering area of 1912 cm². This capacity of the machine allows us to work at lower pressures, compared to other self-cleaning filters, and this as well brings to lower power consumption and lower wear on the screw and barrel of the extruder.

The filter works on 2 different modes. On impulses: when the holes or the screens are blocked by contamination and consequently the pressure raises at a set point, the scraper starts its cycle (normally half a turn) and when the scraper stops the air or oil managed valve opens and discharges what has been collected inside the scraper’s hollow cavity.

On continuous mode. In this case the scraper goes slowly and continuous and the valve is managed by a timer that will open every set minutes, depending basically on the level of contamination.

The filter is very flexible, and it is able to adapt to a lot of different materials and contaminations in a very easy way. It is easy to understand even for the less skilled operators (although we can block any intervention with password if needed). The Fimic filter can  be easily  fitted on any extruder, single or twin screw, new or already in place (we have replaced many different type of filters, manual or automatic).