Membrane filter press plates utilize an impermeable, flexible member attached to the filter press plate core. This terminology should not be confused with sub-micron "membranes" used in ultrafiltration or reverse osmosis. In filter presses, a membrane, also called a diaphragm, is designed to inflate by compressed air or pressurized water to squeeze residual moisture out of the formed filter cake. Polypropylene membrane plates supplied in filter press india Filter Presses have been in use for more than ten years with significant success. These plates are currently in many severe applications – some operating two cycles per hour, 24 hours per day for two years – tens of thousands of cycles without failure.

An Automatic filter press has the same concept as the manual filter and frame filter, except that the whole process is fully automated.[10] It consists of larger plate and frame filter presses with mechanical "plate shifters. The function of the plate shifter is to move the plates and allow rapid discharge of the filter cakes accumulated in between the plates. It also contains a diaphragm compressor in the filter plates which aids in optimizing the operating condition by further drying the filter cakes.

Fully automatic filter presses provide a high degree of automation while providing uninterrupted operation at the same time. The option of the simultaneous filter plate opening system, for example, helps to realize a particularly fast cake release reducing the cycle time to a minimum. The result is a high-speed filter press that allows increased production per unit area of filter her. For this reason, these machines are used in applications with highly filterable products where high filtration speeds are required. These include, e.g. mining concentrates and residues. There are different systems for fully automatic operation. These include e.g. the vibration/shaking devices, spreader clamp/spreader cloth version, or scraping devices. The unmanned operating time of a fully automatic filter press is 24/7.