SPIRAL ELEMENT CONSTRUCTION YIELDING ENHANCED CAPACITY

Printed spacer membrane elements offer the unique advantage of applying any pattern on the membrane surface to act as the feed spacer material. This is in contrast to conventional feed spacer mesh material that is uniform in thickness and density throughout the mesh. More open feed spaces can be utilized allowing closer spacing between membrane sheets in the feed space which allows more membrane sheet to be wrapped around the membrane element-resulting in more permeate flow-while simultaneously reducing the pressure loss from the feed to reject end of the element. Unique design features of printed spacers dramatically improve performance of membrane elements in contrast to conventional feed spacer mesh elements in the prior art.