An End to High-Risk Filtration Era

1. PEK-C

Polyaryl ether ketone (PAEK) is a high-performance polymer featuring a backbone composed of alternating aromatic ether bonds and aromatic ketone groups. Such unique molecular structure gives PAEK a balance of rigidity and flexibility: the rigid phenylene segments provide excellent mechanical strength and heat resistance, while the flexible ether bonds offer good toughness and processability. As a result, PAEK is a thermoplastic engineering plastic with outstanding overall properties and ease of processing, making it widely used in many high-end applications.

Phenolphthalein-based polyaryl ether ketone (PEK-C) is an important member of the PAEK family, easily recognizable by its transparent amber color. Its innovation lies in the introduction of phenolphthalein side groups, which gives PEK-C superior thermal stability, reliable electrical insulation, and chemical corrosion resistance. These properties make PEK-C a critical material in cutting-edge fields such as high-performance composites, water treatment, electronics, electrical engineering, aerospace, automotive manufacturing, and rail transportation. However, traditional purification processes for PEK-C suffer from many operating difficulties due to systemic flaws that limit the overall production efficiency, safety and economical benefits. The main issues are as follows:

High Safety Risks:

The solvent-polymer slurry used in the process is flammable and explosive, so there are significant combustion and explosion hazards during production. Meanwhile, key equipment, such as high-speed centrifuges, is prone to dangerous failures like drum rupture, displacement, or cover plate ejection under high-speed operation.

Open Process with Contamination and Hazards:

Current steps (filtration, washing, drying, etc.) has low automation as manual material transfer between these steps is needed. This not only leads to solvent and dust leakage, which pollutes the environment and jeopardize workers’ health, but also increases product contamination in open environments, thus creating quality control challenges.

Complex Purification Steps and Unstable Quality:

Removing chemical residues, such as dehydrating agents and inorganic salts, requires repeated washing with large amounts of solvent and water. This results in a complex, costly and environmentally unfriendly process. Moreover, the complexity of cleaning leads to inconsistent product quality and poor batch-to-batch stability.

Decentralized Operations, Unsuitable for Large-Scale Production:

Equipment for filtration, washing and drying is scatted, and all the operations are isolated and hard to control. This leads to long production cycles, high energy consumption, and low efficiency, which is unfavorable for modern large-scale production. The dispersed layout of equipment also requires extensive factory space.

2. Shinkai’s Solution

To address the aforementioned process bottlenecks, Shinkai innovatively releases an integrated filtration solution that fully meets the stringent purification requirements of PEK-C. The core advantage of this solution stems from the perfect combination of superior filtration equipment and advanced process design.

2.1 Core Performance of Filtration Equipment: Extreme Reliability, Ready for Any Challenge

Outstanding Filtration Performance: Filtration precision can be accurately adjusted within 0.5-10 μm, achieving 100% retention of solid particles without any risk of leakage.

Exceptional Tolerance: The filter cartridge is immune to harsh working conditions: it operates stably under extreme temperatures up to 900℃, withstands 50 bar of forward pressure, and resists corrosion from various solvents, acids, and alkalis.

Long Service Life: A unique backwashing design extends service life to up to 10 years and greatly reduces the spare parts costs and maintenance frequency.

2.2 Process Benefits of the Integrated Solution: Cost Reduction & Efficiency Gains, Green and Safe Production

Leveraging the above equipment advantages, Shinkai’s integrated solution delivers breakthrough process benefits for PEK-C purification:

Outstanding Product Quality: Through efficient separation and recycling of purification agents, high-purity PEK-C resin with extremely low inorganic ion content can be consistently obtained with high batch-to-batch consistency.

Optimized Production Costs: Raw material and solvent consumption, as well as environmental treatment costs are notably reduced. The process is also simplified, which shortens the production cycle and lowers energy consumption.

Simple and Safe Operation: A fully enclosed design and highly automated process eliminate safety hazards such as solvent volatilization and dust explosion at the source, thus significantly reducing labor intensity and enabling green production.

In summary, Shinkai’s integrated filtration solution is not merely an improvement on traditional processes. It overcomes many drawbacks of conventional purification methods and provides a solid and reliable technical foundation for the large-scale, high-quality, and environmentally friendly production of PEK-C.

3. Nanjing Shinkai

Shinkai is committed to tackling diverse product characteristics and demanding working conditions. Through continuous technological innovation and product development, we provide efficient and reliable customized filtration systems designed to precisely address various separation challenges in customer production processes, thereby significantly enhancing production efficiency and process standards. If you are struggling with any filtration and separation challenges, feel free to contact us, and we are ready to offer one-stop, full-process customized services — from initial consultation to final delivery. Our Service scope include:

Design and Selection of Core Filter Cartridges

Planning and Design of Overall Process Workflow

Selection and Integration of Key Valves and Instruments

Layout Design of Precision Piping System

Let’s work together to tailor the optimal filtration solution for you.

Reference:

[1] Peng Chen, et al. Recent Advances on High-Performance Polyaryletherketone Materials for Additive Manufacturing [J]. Advanced Materials, 2022, 34, 2200750.

Nanjing Shinkai Filter Co., Ltd.

www. shinkaifilter. com

Hotlines:
025-66989518

025-66989516

Email: info@shinkaifilter.com