Hi folks, First of all a disclaimer. Some of my post is MY OPINION, feel free to ignore.

Let me preface by saying I have done a lot of work on filters in my job (although not oil filters for auto's) so have some background (a few years) in this area.

I used my lab microscope at work to take some images, I only have images of the OEM Purflux filter so far, it is a used filter that I washed with some solvent to clear off the old oil. My car currently runs a MANN oil filter which is the normal kind of paper filter rather than the fleece filter. I plan on analyzing a MANN filter as a comparison either a used one or a new one.

Lets move on to some photos, the first set are taken of the INSIDE surface of the filter. The filter material is clearly a synthetic fiber material, the fibers seem to be around 13 microns in diameter.
However the pores between the fibers are rather large.

 

Here's two photos of the outside of the filter element, you can see it is darker from the oil and I managed to see one particle, looks like a piece of carbon or soot. I measured it at 40x30 micron roughly:

 

Lastly here is the center of the filter, I pulled it apart. The fibers look the same and are no finer, neither are the pores.

Based off my discoveries I WON'T be using any OEM Purflux mini filters in my car (I do 7500 mile oil changes however), I'm going to stick with MANN or MAHLE. I'll follow up when I have some images of a more regular filter element. I have a strong suspicion a regular filter has finer pores but plugs quicker which is why they are not used in the mini for the 15k mile services.

 

And your point to all this ?

To show micron entrapment capability with void volume % from a fibre weave, I presume !

 

I'm interested in which oil filter will give me the longest life for my car. Perhaps you missed the part where I said "this is my OPINION feel free to ignore". Why do people do oil analysis or use different oils??


I've done some more digging on synthetic filters, some of them incorporate a 'spiderweb' of extra fine material that collects debris down to a few microns, I'm going to examine some more of the purflux material to see if it has this. So far I haven't found any evidence of this.

I also plan on taking some comparison images of a MANN filter today.

 

You could have saved yourself a whole lot of time, all the information you have gathered so far and will find from your further examination, is all available on the manufacturers relevant websites!

 

Please provide links, I haven't found any.

 

You might want to check this out. http://www.machinerylubrication.com/...ter-efficiency

I know WIX publishes the beta ratio for most of their filters on line. Now if you believe them or not.....

 

Thanks Tdog.

I took some more images of the Purflux and of a brand new MANN filter. It seems the Purflux is graded so the outside and inside fibers are courser and there is a sandwich of finer mesh inside.
It still isn't that fine by the looks of things, I sliced through with a razor blade and you can see particles inside, about 7-8 microns seems to be the smallest it captures, I did see smaller but they were just floating around in the oil and not actually trapped by the filter element (I didn't wash the filter this time).
Compare that with the MANN, the MANN was new and I didn't slice it up (couldn't bring myself to waste the filter!). The fibers are finer and more random, but fine on the surface so they plug faster.

I still think (and still my opinion) the MANN filters more finely than the OEM filter but won't have the same lifetime, it would probably collapse if you left it on for 15k miles.

(the MANN is the clean orange looking picture) I should add both these photos are taken at 100x magnification so a direction comparison. The 50 micron marker is on the bottom right hand side.