The most commonly used powders for porous sintered metals are bronze, stainless steel, nickel- based super alloys and titanium.

The properties of porous sintered elements can be summarised as follows.
* Stability of shape, eg self-carrying structures even at high pressures.
* Good mechanical strength under permanent loads, impact loading or under pressure peaks.
* High temperature strength and thermal shock resistance. Special high temperature alloys can operate up to 1000°C.
* Chemical stability against acids and (alkaline) detergents.
* Wide spectrum of precisely defined pore size distributions: for filters from metallic powders ranging from 0.5µm to 200µm, and from 3µm to 40µm for sintered metal fibre felt.
* Reverse flow, supersaturated hot steam, chemical agents or high temperatures can be applied for cleansing and rinsing.
* Easy to machine, weldable.
As all technologies and products sinter metal filters have also some limits. Therefore the research is ongoing to eliminate these weak-points.
This has led to the development of the ametallic membrane' which can be summarised as follow:
* Improvement of the backflushing performance.
* Improvement of permeability in comparison to standard sintered metals filter media.
* Defined particle retention in the lower micron range.
* Possibility to extend the typical applications for sintered metal filters using the new powder metallurgy approach in the area of the micro filtration.

GKN Sinter Metals Filters GmbH is based in Radevormald, Germany. ww.www.gkn-filters.com