The stainless steel pleated filter element (also known as melt filter) uses stainless steel woven mesh or stainless steel fiber sintered felt as filter media. The woven mesh pleated element features smooth channels, easy cleaning, high temperature resistance (≤500 °C), corrosion resistance, no wire shedding, and long life; the sintered felt pleated element features a multilayer sintered structure with high porosity, good permeability, strong contaminant holding, and regenerability. The pleated design increases filtration area to 5–10 times that of an ordinary cylindrical element. Commonly used for oil, polymer melt, oil-water separation, high-temperature gases, and pharmaceuticals. Service life ≥1 year in chemical industry, ≥2 years in water treatment (reduced in high acidity/alkalinity or high chloride environments).