AFM® Activated (Glass) Filter Media
AFM Glass Media like silica sand, is used to capture sediment, dirt and other particles from water.
What is AFM®?
AFM® Activated Filter Media is a direct replacement for sand, doubling the performance of sand filters without the need for additional investments in infrastructure. AFM® resists biofouling, bio coagulation and transient wormhole channeling of unfiltered water and never needs to be recharged or replaced.
AFM® is a highly engineered product manufactured from a specific glass type, processed to obtain the optimum particle size and shape. It is then exposed to a 3-step activation process to increase its surface area by up to 300 times for superior mechanical and electro-static filtration performance.
Simply replace the sand in your media filters with AFM®. AFM® has a 15 % lower density than sand by weight: E.g. if your filter takes 200 kg of sand it will only require: 200 x 0.85 = 170 kg of AFM®.
AFM® benefits at a glance
- ... more than doubles the performance of an existing filtration system
- ... is not subject to biodynamic instability and will never allow untreated water to pass
- ... substantially lowers chlorine oxidation demand
- ... lowers backwash water demand by an average of 50%
- ... is expected to last for the life of the filtration system
- ... provides a quick return on investment
What makes AFM® so effective?
1. Clean, carefully selected glass
AFM® is only made from pure green and brown glass which have the necessary metal oxides to help
make AFM® self-sterilizing.
2. Ideal hydraulic properties
The raw material is ground into the optimal grain size and shape that is crucial for the outstanding hydraulic characteristics of AFM®. No dangerous glass splinters are allowed to be present in the filter material. Our manufacturing process is ISO certified.
3. Activation process
The AFM® activation process creates a mesoporous structure with a huge catalytic surface area. Sand has a surface area of 3,000 m2 per m3 but AFM® has a surface area up to 300 times greater for adsorption and catalytic reactions. Hydroxyl groups on the surface give AFM® a strong negative charge, known as the zeta potential, that attracts heavy metals and organic molecules. In the presence of small amounts of oxygen or oxidizing agents, the catalytic surface generates free radicals that make AFM® self-sterilizing.
The AFM Glass media has several advantages over the normal silica sand used to remove particles and dirt:
- The AFM Glass Media has a life span of up to 20 years before the media needs to be replaced. Whereas silica sand only typically last 1 to 5 years before needing replacement, depending on the source water quality.
- Where silica sand and other types of cleanable/reusable filter systems typically filter water to around a maximum of 20 microns, AFM Glass media filters the water down to around 3 microns (AFM Glass media 0.5 to 1mm).
- The AFM Glass Media is negatively charged to help absorb some organic molecules from water.
- The AFM Glass media has metal oxide catalysts, which helps to inhibit the growth of bacteria on the media and so increases the life span of the media.
AFM® Glass Media Grades
