FILTRATION APPARATUS

An apparatus for filtering solids suspended in a slurry has a housing divided by a horizontal partition into a lower filtrand chamber and an upper filtrate compartment, the partition serving as a vibratile suspension for a multiplicity of filter tubes depending therefrom into the filtrand compartment. An impactor disposed above the housing top has a vertical plunger, coupled with the partition, which is surrounded by or forms a discharge duct with a lower end closely overlying the bottom of a depression formed in the partition; this duct has an outlet opening above the housing top through which effluent present in the filtrate compartment is expelled by the pressure of incoming slurry in a working phase and by the pressure of a scavenger gas such as air in a purging phase.