Cat Filters the inside story
The inside story – Cat® Filters
Contamination, even by particles too small to see, costs money. Whether that cost comes from low productivity, increased maintenance work or component failures, contaminants can cause serious damage to machinery.
Dan Ware, Manager - Customer Support SEQ at Hastings Deering says that many of these costs can be lessened by making sure to select the right fuel, oil, and air filters.
The advanced design of Cat Filters goes a long way to help minimize damage to machinery. The design maintains the integrity of the clean side of each Cat Filter; from when it leaves the factory, all the way until the next change interval.
Mr Ware explains that unique design features such as acrylic beads, spiral roving, non-metallic centre tubes and moulded endcaps, have overcome many of the common issues that lead to contamination.
“You often see bunching in filters, which triggers a bypass for contaminants. This allows them to circulate through the system and create clogging,’ he states, ‘any contaminant in the system causes additional wear and means more oil changes per year.”
By including acrylic beading in the filter, the pleated filters maintain an even spacing throughout its use.
Caterpillar also identified that filtration efficiency is directly impacted by pleat movement that releases contaminants into the system, this led to the design of fibre glass spiral roving to restrict movement.
“The spiral roving in Cat filters eliminates movement and captures contaminants. During testing, particle counts of filters with spiral roving showed 45% lower contaminants than those without.”
A common cause of metal contamination in machinery is minute metal contaminants being left over from the manufacturing process.
The fibre-glass reinforced nylon tubes are around 30% stronger than the typical metal tubes used in filters.
“Not only does this centre tube eliminate a common cause of metal contamination, it also helps to prevent collapse during pressure spikes and cold starts.”
Complete with moulded endcaps, Cat Filters completely seal off the clean side of the filters.
“The moulded endcaps eliminate the possibility of gaps. During the manufacturing process, the filter media is inserted into the polyurethane before it hardens creating a secure bond that keeps contaminates confined.”
An aluminium baseplate is joined to the moulded end cap and enclosed within the one-piece canister, giving Cat Filters greater burst strength, and eliminating a potential source of metal contamination.
“While other filters can be cheaper, they can very quickly end up costing more through lower productivity, shorter fluid intervals and faster component wear,” said Mr Ware.
