Plate filters are heavily used in chemical, pharmaceutical and food industry's. The liquid  to be filtered flows through the filter plates.  For each plate, the flow line is fitted with a glance and an isolation valve serving firstly to observe and detect the flow of the product and secondly to seal independently each filter plate.  

Here, the frames supporting the plates form a block (=module) and are linked by the stem of this last one. 
The lens module through which the filtrate flows, bathed in fact in the liquid maintained under pressure.  This kind of filter provides a great ease of handling.

The filter type "Gauthier" straddles the filter plate and the conventional lenticular filter module.  As for the filter lens module, the medium of the filter is immersed in the liquid under pressure. By against, the frames like in a classic "filter plate" may be remove the tacking one by one.