Guangzhou Lvyuan Water Purification Equipment Co., Ltd. is an industrial filter manufacturer founded in 2009 that designs and manufactures stainless steel filter housings, stainless steel sterile water tanks, filter elements, filter bags, ultra-polymer materials, and sintered filter products. Buyers choose Lvyuan for OEM/ODM support, ISO9001 quality control, and multi-country certifications.
Compare string-wound vs meltblown cartridges across structure, filtration, precision, flow, cost, and use cases—so you can pick the right filter or build a smart combo system.
Abstract
In the field of industrial filtration,string-wound and meltblown cartridges, as the two mainstream filtration elements, are widely used in different scenarios due to their differentiated performance characteristics. In this paper, a comparative analysis is carried out in 8 dimensions, such as structural design, filtration mechanism, performance parameters, cost-effectiveness, etc. Combined with authoritative data and industry cases, the core differences between the two and the selection logic are systematically elaborated to provide selection reference for the industries of water treatment, chemical industry, and food and beverage.
The string -wound cartridge takes the porous skeleton (polypropylene or stainless steel) as the core, and then the textile fibers (e.g., polypropylene, degreased cotton threads) are twisted one by one according to a specific process to form a honeycomb structure that is sparse outside and dense inside. Its filtration precision is controlled by the thickness of the string and winding density, for example, when using 0.1mm fiber with high tension winding, the pore space of the outer layer can be up to 50 μm, and the inner layer can be reduced to 1 μm, so as to realize progressive filtration.
Meltblown Cartridge adopts polypropylene (PP) particles melted at high temperature and then sprayed into ultra-fine fibers (1-5μm in diameter) to form a three-dimensional microporous structure through random stacking. Its density distribution is loose on the outside and tight on the inside, for example, the outer fiber gap is 20μm, the inner layer can be compressed to 0.5μm, suitable for intercepting submicron particles.
Structure Comparison Table
| Parameters | string Wound Cartridges | Meltblown Cartridges |
| Core Material | Polypropylene/Stainless Steel Backbone | Pure Polypropylene Fibers |
| Fiber Diameter | 0.1-0.5 mm | 1-5μm |
| Pore Distribution | Outer Sparse, Inner Dense (50μm→1μm) | Outer Loose, Inner Tight (20μm→0.5μm) |
| Manufacturing Process | Mechanical Winding | High Temperature Meltblown Molding |
The string wound cartridge realizes the “deep filtration” by the gradient change of the fiber gaps. “deep filtration”. Experiments show that its interception rate of particles above 10μm can reach 95%, but the efficiency drops to 70% when dealing with 1μm particles. Its advantage lies in low pressure drop (0.02-0.1MPa) and high flow rate (10″ cartridge processing capacity up to 2.5m³/h), which is suitable for pretreatment or high flow rate scenarios.
The Meltblown Cartridge relies on a dense network formed by ultrafine fibers, and works through a dual mechanism of surface interception and deep adsorption. Data show that its retention rate of 1μm particles is more than 99%, and the pressure drop is high (0.1-0.3MPa), which is suitable for terminal fine filtration. For example, in the pharmaceutical industry, meltblown cartridges ensure a 99.99% bacterial retention rate for water for injection.
| Filter Element Type | Acid and Alkali Resistance (pH) | Maximum Operating Temperature | Examples of Applicable Media |
|---|---|---|---|
| string Wounded Elements | 1-13 | 120°C (stainless steel skeleton) | Strong acids, organic solvents |
| Meltblown Cartridge | 1-13 | 70°C | Weak acids, water-based solutions |
Meltblown cartridge is easy to be clogged due to high precision, and needs to be equipped with backwashing system, which increases the equipment investment by 15%-20%.
Establish the selection model according to the three elements of flow rate, precision and cost:
if demand precision>10μm → choose string-wound cartridge (cost priority)
elif demand precision 1-10μm and flow rate<5m³/h → choose meltblown cartridge (efficiency priority)
else → combination (string-wound pre-filtration+meltblown fine filtration)
The essence of the difference between string -wound and meltblown cartridges lies in the trade-off of the precision-flow-cost triangle. String -wound cartridges are the preferred choice for pre-treatment because of their economy and high flow rate, while meltblown cartridges are the core component of end-of-line filtration because of their high precision. Industrial selection needs to be combined with specific working conditions, if necessary, the use of a combination of solutions to maximize performance. With the development of new materials and intelligent technology, the performance boundaries of the two will be further broadened to promote the filtration industry to efficient and precise.
