The cartridges consisting of a single piece of filter medium are made from a perforated cylindrical core, of metal or stiff plastic, onto which the material of the filter medium is placed or formed. There are two basic types of integral media
cartridges, depending upon which primary filtration mechanism is operating: thin media, which work by surface filtration, followed if necessary by cake filtration on top of the surface layer; and thick media, which work by depth filtration.