The firm, the life science tools division of Germany’s Merck KGaA, recently upped its offering of filtration consumables with the Express range of cartridges and capsules.
The filters differ from standard ones by having an ‘M-pleat’ pattern which head of Process Solutions Strategic Marketing & Innovation Andrew Bulpin told Biopharma-Reporter.com.
“These pleated cartridge and capsule normal flow filters provide sterilizing-grade performance for the filtration of biological fluids. The M-pleat structure, taller pleats and narrower core allow these high area cartridges and capsules to contain two times the membrane area of standard area devices.”
As such, they allow increased capacity/throughput in highly plugging feed streams and reduced footprint requirements, improving the ease of use of single-use assemblies, he continued.
“The high area allows for greater efficiency in the filtration step, meaning these users can either use fewer filter elements or filter more fluid per batch, improving the overall economics of their filtration step.”
He added: “MilliporeSigma’s filters are perfectly suited for fluids that have a high level of particulates that could prematurely plug a filter.”
We also asked Bulpin about the compatibility with rival firms’ downstream equipment. As the filters are available in standard sizes, with standard connections, they fit in typical filter housings, regardless of the manufacturer he said.
“The single-use capsule versions are ready to use in any single-use assembly made by any company. An important feature of the high-area devices is that they are standard size in terms of diameter and length, but contain twice the filtration area. Therefore, users can double the efficiency of their filtration step without adding any new hardware.”