Method of making a support for tubesheets in hollow fiber permeators

A method of making a foraminous plate having practical utility as an effluent--conveying support, between a hollow fiber tubesheet and a backing member, in a hollow fiber type permeability separatory device,

• said method comprising rolling up together a supporting tape and a spacing means, said tape having first and second edges which define corresponding first and second faces of the resulting coil or roll,
• said spacing means not extending across said tape as far as said first tape edge and, at the time that said tape and said means are being rolled up together, being so sized and shaped and so positioned between the tape wraps in the resulting coil or roll that said means occupies only a minor portion of the space between said wraps and does not prevent free flow of said effluent from said first face to said second face through the portion of said space not occupied by said means,
• and said coil or roll, as it exists immediately upon being formed by said rolling up, without being subjected to further treatment other than imposing on it such restraint against uncoiling as may be necessary, constituting said plate, in which said spacing means will not block off any hollow fiber lumens when said plate is placed between said tubesheet and said backing member with said first face against said tubesheet.