Compressed Air & Gas Filters

Medical Vacuum Filter

Keeps what your suction draws from patients on a filter, not in your pumps, your plant room or the air outside.

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A pair of white medical vacuum filter housings with gauges and drain bottles, beside a black filter element and mounting feet

Product overview

A barrier between your patients and your vacuum plant

Wound drainage, airway suction, surgical suction and thoracic drainage all draw air from direct contact with a patient. The gas reaching your vacuum plant carries droplets of blood, mucus and irrigation fluid, and the microorganisms living in them. Our medical vacuum filter captures them on the suction side, before they reach the receiver, the pumps, the plant room or the exhaust.

Its hydrophobic borosilicate glass microfibre element retains above 99.995 % in the sodium flame test to BS 3928, the efficiency HTM 02-01 specifies: no more than 50 of every 1,000,000 test particles pass. A drainage trap below collects liquid carryover, with a sight glass to show it and an isolation valve so it can be emptied without breaking the vacuum.

The filters are installed as a duplex pair in parallel, each able to carry the full plant flow, so one element can be changed while the other keeps your wards and theatres at full vacuum. The used element leaves as clinical waste, taking the captured pathogens with it.

A white medical vacuum filter housing with its gauge, black element, drain and collection bottle laid out around it
  • Above 99.995 %Sodium flame test efficiency, BS 3928
  • 4.3 logReduction of the test aerosol
  • 2.5 ×Gas volume at 40 kPa absolute, against atmospheric
  • 12 monthsLongest interval between element changes

Benefits

The problems it solves

Every suction point in your hospital draws from a patient. Here is what that does to an unprotected vacuum plant, and how the filters stop it.

  • A plant full of pathogens

    The problem

    Warm, moist pumps and receivers hold organic matter, and without filtration microorganisms settle there and in the pump oil.

    How it solves it

    Above 99.995 % retention of the test aerosol keeps microorganisms out of your receiver, pumps and exhaust.

  • Liquid in the pumps

    The problem

    A slug of aspirated fluid can reach the pumps within seconds of a jar failure, emulsifying the oil and corroding internal surfaces.

    How it solves it

    The drainage trap collects liquid by gravity and holds it in view, so the element above stays dry and your pumps stay protected.

  • Contaminated maintenance

    The problem

    Every oil change and pump overhaul on an unfiltered plant exposes your engineers to infectious material.

    How it solves it

    Oil changes and overhauls proceed as routine engineering tasks, without decontamination steps, and exposure is limited to a planned element change.

  • Exhaust near occupied areas

    The problem

    Vacuum exhaust leaves at roof or wall level, close to where people walk and where air enters ventilation systems.

    How it solves it

    Air discharged outside your hospital has passed through high-efficiency filtration first.

  • Losing suction for a service

    The problem

    Theatres and critical care cannot lose suction for patients who cannot clear their own airways.

    How it solves it

    Duplex filters let you bring the standby filter online before isolating the loaded one, so terminal units stay at full vacuum throughout.

  • Failures you cannot see

    The problem

    A bedside jar shut-off fails somewhere in the building, or an element loads until the plant cannot hold its vacuum at peak demand.

    How it solves it

    Liquid in the trap sight glass flags a failed jar, and the differential pressure gauge shows element loading before patients are affected.

Where it’s used

Wherever suction is drawn from a patient

From a single day surgery centre to an acute hospital with hundreds of terminal units, one filter bank at the plant protects every pipeline branch.

  • A bright intensive care room with a bed beside a service column carrying a monitor and wall outlets

    Acute hospitals

    Central vacuum plants serving operating theatres, intensive care, emergency departments, maternity units and general wards.

  • Operating theatre lights mounted on ceiling arms

    Operating theatres

    Surgical suction removing blood, irrigation fluid and tissue debris, and drawing aerosols from electrosurgery.

  • A patient monitor showing heart rate and oxygen readings

    Critical care and isolation

    Airway suction of ventilated patients and of patients with airborne infections, the heaviest pathogen load on the plant filter.

  • An endoscopy stack and monitor in a procedure room

    Day surgery and endoscopy

    Endoscopic suction clearing fluid and debris from the view.

  • A dental unit with its lamp and handpieces

    Dental hospitals and clinics

    Dental suction handling saliva, blood and spray aerosol from high-speed handpieces.

  • A gloved hand holding a culture plate in a laboratory

    Laboratories

    Aspiration of cultures and cell media, where filtration keeps organisms out of the building vacuum.

Also respiratory and thoracic medicine, obstetrics, veterinary hospitals, mortuaries and pathology, and hospital refurbishments bringing existing vacuum plants into line with HTM 02-01 and ISO 7396-1.

How it works

Trap, filter, protect

Liquid falls out first, the bacteria filter holds the microorganisms, and only clean gas reaches your receiver, pumps and exhaust.

How a medical vacuum filter works: suction gas from the wards reaches the plant, where liquid carryover falls into a drainage trap with a sight glass. The gas then passes the in-service bacteria filter, whose glass microfibre element retains microorganisms, while its twin stands isolated on standby for changeover. Clean gas goes on to the vacuum receiver, the pumps and the exhaust outdoors, and a differential pressure gauge shows the element loading. From the wardsSuction pointsand jarsDrainagetrapTo clinical waste Bacteriafilter 1Above 99.995 % · BS 3928 Differentialpressure gauge Filter 2,on standby VacuumreceiverVacuum pumpsExhaustto outside 12345Suction gas from patientsFiltered gasMicroorganismsLiquid carryoverIsolation valve, openIsolation valve, closed

  1. 1. Trap the liquidAt the plant inlet, gas passes into the larger drainage trap and slows. Liquid slugs and large droplets fall out under gravity while the gas turns up towards the filter. The sight glass shows when liquid has arrived, and the trap is emptied after isolating and venting it.

  2. 2. Capture the microbesIn the in-service filter, a pleated, hydrophobic glass microfibre medium captures bacteria, fungal spores and virus-carrying droplets by impaction, interception and diffusion, with an efficiency above 99.995 % in the sodium flame test to BS 3928.

  3. 3. Clean gas onFiltered gas goes on to the vacuum receiver and the pumps, so maintenance staff open a clean pump, and the exhaust discharges outdoors stripped of the microorganisms it carried.

  4. 4. Read the loadingThe differential pressure gauge across the in-service filter shows how far its element has loaded. A sudden rise indicates a wetted element; a fall to near zero indicates a ruptured element or leaking seal.

  5. 5. Change over without stoppingFilter 2 stands isolated, ready. To change filter 1's element, filter 2's outlet and then inlet valves open, filter 1's inlet and then outlet valves close, and its housing is vented slowly and serviced while your terminal units stay at full vacuum.

Flow figures through a medical vacuum filter are read in actual volume at operating vacuum, not free air volume.

Get the full details

Our brochure covers it in detail, and our questionnaire tells us what we need to recommend the right one for your plant.

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