Conical Strainers, Flat Plate Strainers & Tee Strainers: Here Are The Differences

What are strainers and why are they so important? Newark Wire answers this question by going in-depth on the three most common types of strainers. Conical, flat plate, and tee strainers protect expensive parts down the line. These parts can include valves, meters, pumps, and other delicate mechanical equipment. No matter how streamlined your systems are, it’s possible that a foreign contaminant or object can get inside sometimes. This is where a high quality wire cloth strainer can come into play.

Stainless steel is one of the best materials for a sanitary strainer. It is used for everything from the production of foods and beverages to the pharmaceutical industry, and the market continues to expand.

You can find strainers that are both perforated metal plate and wire cloth. This choice, as well as the basic strainer shape, will affect how much filtration you achieve and ease of cleaning. Here are three common filter shapes and how they’re used:

Conical Strainers

Conical cone type strainers have a seemingly simple design, but they carry out big jobs in your systems. Their shape involves a cone of mesh that fits within your system.

Purpose and Applications

Conical strainers offer a large filtration area, letting you catch more debris. They’re often used for products that have been recently welded. During the welding process, it’s possible that slag or bits of debris may have formed inside the pipes. Conical strainers will catch these specks of metal before they travel down and damage your delicate, expensive system.

Pros and Cons

• You can find these strainers in a wide variety of materials, from stainless steel to other applications.
• The wide to narrow design increases filtration area.
• Conical strainers can be placed both up and downstream, depending on the application.
• The mesh of a conical strainer can rip if the tip is under strain. You may need to check and clean the strainer regularly.

Flat Plate Strainers

A flat strainer plate is a simple design that involves a flat plane of mesh that stretches perpendicular to the system’s flow.

Purpose and Applications

These strainers are useful for tight spaces due to their compact design size. They offer a fair degree of filtration and can be a good solution for tricky system setups.

Pros and Cons

• Flat plate strainers, unlike conical strainers, require less space to use.
• These strainers come both with and without bolt holes to secure in place, lending themselves to a wide variety of applications.
• Flat plate strainers come in a range of materials ranging from perforated metal to wire cloth to a combination.
• However, these strainers offer reduced filtration area when compared to conical strainers.
• These strainers can be somewhat harder to remove and check than other strainer types.

Tee Strainers

This form of strainer features a tee shape, allowing fluid to pass straight through or at 90 degrees.

Purpose and Applications

Tee type strainers are compact yet versatile. They can allow filtration and easy access to products moving through the system.

Pros and Cons

• Tee strainers come as both wire cloth and perforated metal.
• They offer a high flow capacity.
• With proper installation, the chamber cover can be opened without the fluids draining from said chamber. This can increase safety in some applications.
• The strainer offers flexibility of flow, with both 90 and 180 degree paths available. This can create a solution for tricky spaces or system set-ups.
• However, due to the shape, tee strainers are more challenging to clean than plate strainers.

Don’t Over-Strain Your System: Use Newark Wire Cloth’s Industrial Strainers

• Large conical strainers offer the highest filtration area of the three.
• Flat plate strainers are the smallest, most compact and have a simple to clean design.
• Tee strainers offer the greatest versatility of installation and use.

Now that you know more information about industrial strainers, are you ready to choose the right ones for your business? At Newark Wire Cloth, we stock a wide range of high-quality strainers to work with any system.