Almalyk Mining and Smelting Plant (AGMK), which is the largest producer and supplier of copper and zinc, about 20% of gold and 90% of silver in the Republic of Uzbekistan, is briefly presented. The end products of the plant include refined copper, affined precious metals, metal zinc, cadmium, copper wire, copper enameled wire and many other things. AGMK cadmium workshop uses frame filter presses for the filtration of suspensions of copper–cadmium cake. The current filter presses have electromechanical clamping drives with f a screw couple set in motion by the electric motor through a reducer by means of a gear wheel and a cogwheel with the screw couple nut pressed in the spider. The operation of these filter presses reveals three key disadvantages of the existing design: low durability of sliding bearings; increased wear of the nut of the screw couple; highly laborious maintenance and repair of the drive. For the solution of these problems, the new design is offered for the clamping system of the frame filter press with the hydraulic drive. The purpose of the filter press updating is to increase its operational reliability in order to extend the life duration of the machine, to reduce the downtimes for repairs and to cut down power and labor consumption. During the studies, the hydraulic circuit is designed, the standard sizes of hydraulic devices are selected as gear pump GP-16-G-3, bilateral hydraulic cylinder HS2 200.90×1000, the volume of a hydraulic tank is determined, etc. Rejection of the mechanical drive provides an increase in the overhaul life due to the higher reliability of the hydraulic drive components and owing to more efficient control of the clamping force. The calculations show that implementation of the design requires no heavy capital expenditure. In the meanwhile, as a result of introduction of the design, the product cost will decrease by 0.05% at the payback period of the investment not longer than 3 months.