The equipment shown is a small production line used to manufacture hollow fiber membranes using a technique called solvent spinning. A polymer dope is created by mixing a polymer, a solvent, and other ingredients in a mixer. This material is then transferred to a small supply tank. The dope is then pumped to a degassing tank which acts as a supply tank to a second degassing tank. Bore fluid, or lumen, is supplied from a pressurized tank and metered to the spinning process through an extremely accurate computer controlled flow meter. Polymer dope is fed individually to each spinneret by two four-stream metering pumps. This system will spin either four or eight membranes at a time. The system operates at speeds up to 100 meters/minute, and draw or relaxation may be applied to the membrane at any point between tanks or devices. All tanks and vessels are accurately temperature controlled. The membranes are spun into a water filled coagulation tank as a sheet of fibers where they are wrapped multiple times around a pair of speed controlled rolls. They are then fed to a second rinse tank in a similar manner. Finally, they are hot-air dried and wound on a take-up reel as illustrated above.

POLYSULFONE WATER PURIFICATION FIBER 800µm 1500µm wall