Overhead Beam Filter Presses

Overhead beam filter presses are a type of industrial filtration equipment used for liquid-solid separation and dewatering. They consist of an overhead beam from which a series of plates are suspended. When the slurry to be separated is pumped into the filter press, the liquid passes through the filter cloths attached to the plates while the solids in the feed are captured on the cloth and discharged as dewatered cakes.

How Diefenbach OH Series Overhead Beam Filter Presses Work

Diefenbach OH range of overhead beam filter presses feature a pair of overhead beams with a sliding system of suspended plates. The plates are recessed on both sides and can optionally include a fixed or removable membrane for further liquid removal. When the plates are held together via the hydraulic or mechanical mechanism, the recesses form a series of chambers.
 
Slurry material is pumped into the chambers from both sides of the filter press. The liquid in the slurry passes through filter cloths on the plates and into a storage tank, while the solid material is captured on the cloths as a filter cake. If equipped with membrane plates, water is inserted between the internal surface of the plate and the membrane to squeeze the cake and recover additional liquid.
 
At the end of the filtration stage, a core blowing of the central feed port removes slurry residue to improve cake dryness. An optional cake drying step introduces compressed air into the filter press to improve the dryness of the solid material before discharge.
 
The plate transport mechanism then opens the cylinder to release the solid cakes. Diefenbach offers several options of plate transport devices for overhead beam style filter presses, including standard plate opening, fast plate opening and instantaneous pack opening. The best opening system depends on the feed sludge and the application.
 
 
Dief-Press-with-Shadowed-Logo-Centered
Cake-Falling-Closeup---Blue-Press-Elements-in-Background
Dief-Right-Side-with-Logo
IMG_1665 (2)
Coal-Tailing-Filter-Cakes
R-Dief-Blue-Closer-Crop
Diefenbach-OH-Series-Filter-Presses-in-Water-Treatment-Plant
Surge-Tank-for-Filter-Press-with-Non-Contact-Radar-Level-Sensor

Why Diefenbach OH Series Overhead Beam Filter Presses

Diefenbach OH range of overhead beam filter presses provide the structural simplicity and robustness required for all types of applications involving liquid-solid separation. These fully automated machines offer easy maintenance and operation. They also can be designed to meet ATEX standards for explosive environments as well as to withstand the processing of acidic and corrosive materials for applications such as battery recycling.
 
Diefenbach overhead beam filter presses offer easy cloth changing without the need to remove the filter plates.  This makes the process for changing out a filter cloth fast and easy.
 
With more than 100 years spent designing and manufacturing filter presses, Diefenbach has become the leading filtration authority. Each application is carefully reviewed and the feed sludge is tested in Diefenbach’s in-house lab so that Diefenbach can recommend the best filter press for the application.
 
Diefenbach overhead beam filter presses are available with either recessed chamber or membrane plates in a wide range of sizes for handling small to large capacities. Several plate transport systems are also available for handling light to heavy-duty sludges. 
New call-to-action

With a robust and time-proven design, Diefenbach's range of OH Series overhead beam filter presses are trusted by customers around the world to recycle billions of liters of water.

Features & Benefits of
Diefenbach OH Series Overhead Beam Filter Presses

Robust overhead beam design proven over decades in the most demanding applications

Diefenbach's overhead beam filter press design has been in use for decades with a proven history of long-term reliability and ease-of-maintenance.

 

Overhead Beam Filter Press high angle shot displaying the beam and filter press plates
Canva Design DAFZLi-qpik

Advanced automation and remote monitoring packages

Advanced automation and remote assistance packages are available for all Diefenbach equipment lines.

Robotic high-pressure automated wash system

Diefenbach's robotic automatic wash system allows for complete refreshing of the filter cloths at pressures up to 100 Bar (1450 psi).  

Automating the wash system frees up operators to focus on production and ensure the life of the filter cloths is maximized. High-pressure wash using robotic spray arms provides a much deeper and thorough wash than what can be achieved manually.  This makes it the ideal solution for most applications to ensure maximum filtration performance as well and minimum operating costs.  

Dief-Blue--with-Grey-Autowash-and-Water-Droplet
test description111

Recessed chamber and membrane plate styles

A wide range of cake thickness and plate styles are available for complete optimization of the requirements.

Read More

Advanced FEA design with three axes of rigidity

Using advanced Finite Element Analysis (FEA) design techniques and three axes of rigidity, Diefenbach overhead beam filter presses are not subject to torsion of the frame. This is a large structural advantage and has been proven in the field over decades to be a robust and reliable frame design. This design also overcomes the reliability challenges that come from multiple hydraulic cylinders and the complications of keeping these cylinders in sync over time. With only one cylinder on the main drive, the possibility of unexpected structural stresses are reduced.

The OH1000 Overhead Beam Filter Press fully installed

Rapid opening and closing with synchronization guarantee

With only one cylinder on the main drive of Diefenbach overhead beam filter presses, synchronization of the plate movement is guaranteed.  Filter presses with 4 cylinders can have issues with maintaining alignment as the filter press opens and closes.  To overcome these challenges the Diefenbach design uses a more robust structural steel frame and a large single cylinder.  This eliminates the need for synchronization of multiple cylinders and allows for much faster opening and closing times.  The Diefenbach OH Series can open at speeds of up to 60 plates per minute.  It is also able to open and close the mobile plate much faster than multiple cylinder designs giving it a large production capacity advantage in both key phases of the discharge of the filter cakes.

The rigid frame and single hydraulic cylinder design reduces hydraulic system complications and maintenance and allows for higher production rates due to the faster opening and closing times.

 

Bidirectional filling via dual feed entry points

Diefenbach overhead beam filter presses feature bidirectional filling, allowing the press to be fed from both sides of the filter press.  This cuts the time to fill the filter press in half and reduces the velocity of incoming material to help increase wear life of the filter media.  Duel-feed entry also helps improve the consistency of the filter cake from end-to-end vs. presses that are only fed from one side.

Dual-Feed-Inlets-for-Bi-directional-Filling

 

Core Blow for evacuation of the feed channel

Diefenbach overhead beam filter presses offer a core blowing to remove residue from the central filling channel at the end of the filtration stage.  Core blow helps to reduce moisture that is discharged with the filter cake as well as reduce buildup on the sealing edges of the filter plates.

Greater access and ease of maintenance

Free space between the plates on Diefenbach overhead beam filter presses is about 800 mm (31”), providing greater access and ease of maintenance. This is roughly 10 times the space available on side-beam presses and allows for easy cloth and plate inspection as well as easy filter cloth changeout.

Diefenbach filter plates

 

No side beams to block cake discharge

Because the plates on Diefenbach overhead beam filter presses are not encased between structural side beams, there is no possibility for cake residue to build up on the side of the filter plates as the cakes are discharged.  This is a big advantage over side beam filter presses which are prone to cakes rotating and building up against the side beams and eventually preventing good sealing of the filter plates.

Resources

Types of Filter Plates

Diefenbach offers two different filter plate options: recessed and membrane. 

 

Read More

Types of Filter Press Opening Systems

Diefenbach offers several different types of plate opening systems.

 

Read More

Lab Testing

Diefenbach tests the feed material for each application to design the best filter press for the job. 

 

Read More

Interested in Diefenbach Overhead Beam Filter Presses?