Yes, you can. It does not make sense, however, because the nylons have to adapt to the shape of the leg-are therefore stretchable. The meshes of the pantyhose change their size under pressure, allowing particles to pass that should be filtered out.
But back to the beginning: nylon or polyamide is available for over 75 years, in the USA the pantyhose was already launched in May 1940. Soon the tights were also alienated: for example as a V-belt replacement or – as Bernd Schwegmann noted at the end of the 1950s, as a filter. During a business trip through English paint factories, he discovered that lacquers and paints were filtered with nylon ladies pantyhose. To date only sieves made of metal wire were known to him. The idea with the nylon pantyhose as a filter seemed interesting to him, as the material is easier and faster to process than metal. However, he was disturbed by the fact that the mesh size changed in pressure. He embarked on the search for a precision fabric, a technical textile, which maintains the mesh size in case of pressure. He found the solution at a supplier who made screen fabrics for screen printing. The fabric was excellently processed on a sewing machine and so at the beginning of the 1960s his wife Ursula sewed the first sieve bags in the home living room. In 1963 the patent was filed for "sieve bags made of natural or chemical fibres".
Even today our screening bags are state of the art for open filtration, not only in the paint and coating industry. In our own sewing plant we manufacture sieve bags according to customer requirements, adapted to the conditions in the production of our customers. We use silicone-poor or food-resistant materials (polyamide, polyester or polypropylene) and offer a choice of over 25 different mesh sizes (1 µm to 2000 µm).
With a pantyhose you can achieve a certain filtration effect, so even today we find users for this type of filtration. However, if you want to achieve a filtration with a high degree of separation, i.e. filter particles up to a defined particle size out of a liquid, we recommend the use of our sieve bags. If more throughput is required or if you want to use a closed system, ring filter bags are used. These bags, also available in nylon, are used in bag filter housing for closed filtration.
How exactly does a precision fabric work? For this you will find information in our area function & use under surface filtration.