Growth in the filtration market is being driven by a number of factors. First and foremost of these is the consumers’ need for clean air to breathe and water to drink, but other factors include better fuel efficiency, government regulations and greater awareness of respiratory illnesses. Nonwovens innovation has played an increasingly dominant role in delivering these requirements as manufacturers are constantly raising the bar with new substrate technology replacing existing media and offering a more efficient, and thorough, filtering system.

“The macro trends that have caused filtration demand to continue to grow are increased regulations and the worldwide switch to natural gas as a fuel source due to its favorable price,” says Mike Clark, president High Efficiency and Specialty Filtration at Hollingsworth & Vose. “The implementation in the European Union of the Europe 5&6 regulation is an example of the stricter air quality regulations worldwide. It requires higher performance for fuel media to reach the fuel efficiency mandates.”

In the high efficiency markets, manufacturers are seeing more stringent standards worldwide for indoor air quality, pollution control, processing requirements and energy efficiency, which have driven the need for new products. Meanwhile, Clark says he sees a need in the HVAC market for synthetic filter media that provides a stable mechanical efficiency while providing long life. H&V’s NanoWave is a high performing filter media and the only synthetic filter media that outperforms glass mat in EN 779:2012. This core new technology platform is expected to bring higher levels of performance to a broad array of filtration applications.

And, H&V has its hand in many filtration applications ranging from the highly specialized to the home filter areas. While price sensitivity remains in all markets, there is an increasing percentage of the population who are placing more value on filtration. “Price sensitivity remains in the lower end of home filtration products, but the segment of the population willing to pay a higher price for performance is increasing because clean air cannot be taken for granted.”

H&V’s Technostat offers a great balance between energy consumption and pressure drop with a higher Alpha rating than competing filter media and the company has found that its customers are willing to pay for this performance in furnace filter, cabin air, respirator, room air cleaner and vacuum cleaner applications. To meet demand for the product H&V is building a new Technostat line in Floyd, VA which will come onstream in mid 2015.

In other investment news, H&V has invested significant capital to expand production in Asia with the addition of a new production line in Suzhou, China, which began production in the first quarter of 2014. “Business in Asia continues to grow steadily and H&V looks to bring the advantage of downstream processing to China as the requirements for quality materials grow in Asia,” says Engine and Industrial President Josh Ayer.

“The high-end specialty filtration market is growing,” Clark adds. “In Asia there are more and more competitors, but the exacting standards of these markets make it hard for start-ups to compete.”

In terms of end use markets, electronic cleanroom filtration media can be volatile because it is based on fluctuating consumer demand and global business confidence to make the very large capital investment associated with a new cleanroom project. The demand in the life sciences market is more predictable because the filter changes are scheduled and more frequent.  “Chinese standards for quality and performance continue to rise for filtration in life sciences applications,” Ayers says. “Asia is a critical region for H&V.  On the cleanroom side, the manufacturing base for electronics continues to be in Asia.”

On the HVAC and liquid filtration front, air quality and water quality issues in the developing world will continue to create opportunities and foster innovation.  The population growth and the increasing wealth in Asia will continue to drive growth for all segments of filtration.
Ahlstrom focuses on new product development

Ahlstrom has been focusing on growing its filtration business for the past two decades, relying on a spate of capacity expansions and acquisitions to fuel growth. Today these businesses are the company’s most profitable. The company operates two filtration-related business units, Advanced Filtration and Transportation Filtration. “Our global technology and market leading position will be further supported by focusing on our customers’ needs and on high performance product offerings,” says Noora Blasi, marketing manger. “Our ability to bring innovations in product development and in our way of bringing products to the market has given us many new opportunities for growth.”

One product recently introduced by Ahlstrom is Pleat2Save, which provides superior durability during demanding process and usage conditions compared to other similar products and brings significant cost savings to filter makers and cleaner air to the end users.
This product completes Ahlstrom’s portfolio of products for high efficiency air applications, which also includes Ahlstrom Flow2Save, introduced in 2013 for significant energy savings and microglass filter media.

Also this year, Ahlstrom introduced SafeCabin, a full portfolio of cabin air filter media including fine particulate and activate carbon with Ahlstrom Trinitex. Within the transportation filtration segment, Ahlstrom has also improved its fully synthetic portfolio with increased focus on again resistance and increased performance.

“We see solid growth for transportation filtration and it will be supported by our global leadership role in the filtration markets,” Blasi says. “Our customers are supported by our global presence. We will continue to invest in high technology an sustainable solutions.”
Meanwhile, in Advanced Filtration, Ahlstrom has selected several key markets where it wishes to grow. These include Laboratory and life science filtration in Europe and Asia where growth will be driven by demand for cleaner air and water and energy savings.

“Filtration applications need more and more highly engineered and higher performing products, therefore bringing certain barriers to entry to the market,” Blasi says. “Focused development of technologies, chemistries and innovation are key elements for staying as a strong player in this market. Companies may also have a global reach with local knowledge to be competitive and reactive.”
IAQ to the rescue

As today’s consumers understand the importance and value of clean air and water, some of the world’s more polluted regions are changing regulations for vehicle registrations to control pollution but it will take time to see results, Blasi adds. In other regions, like North America, the focus is more on indoor air quality and has been for many years.

“Filtration applications need more and more highly engineered and higher performing products, and are therefore bringing certain barriers to entry to the market,” Blasi says.

Kimberly-Clark Professional’s Robert Martin also sites the need for indoor air quality as a major trend driving growth in the filtration market. “In schools, IAQ directly impacts student academic performance and health,” he explains. “In healthcare facilities, good IAQ through proper air filtration can reduce the transmission of airborne infectious disease. And, in commercial buildings, improved IAQ can help to improve work performance, reduce absenteeism and reduce healthcare costs.”

Kimberly-Clark Professional Filtration meets the industry’s demand for superior IAQ and reduced energy consumption with a line of air filter media that features a robust mechanical structure enhanced with an electret charge. Our filter media delivers both high initial and high sustained particle capture efficiencies.

Lung-damaging dust can be as small as 0.5 microns in size and some bacteria are as small as 0.3 microns. The electrostatic effects in an electret-charged media are particularly useful in increasing the capture efficiency for these submicron particles (E1 and E2 particles) that travel to the deepest part of the lungs, where they can cause health problems. In fact, recent testing shows that filters using electret-treated media perform on average 20% higher than mechanical filters on the market today.

Air filters with electret-treated media typically deliver lower airflow resistance as well, which translates directly to reduction in energy consumption and cost as well as reduced greenhouse gas generation

Lydall acquires Andrew Industries
In February 2014, filtration leader Lydall Inc., Manchester, CT, broadened its product portfolio and expanded its business into Asia through the acquisition of Andrew Industries, a baghouse filtration media manufacturer with sites in South Carolina, the U.K., and China. The acquisition will add more than $130 million to Lydall’s sales moving forward.

According to executives, many complements exist between the two companies but the main motivators behind the acquisitions was providing Lydall with access to the industrial market and providing it with a Chinese operation. Prior to the acquisition, Lydall had a strong North American presence as well as a Western European business served through plants in France and the Netherlands.

“The acquisition of Andrew Filtration expands our global footprint, adds complementary and new technologies as well as substantial scale that provides a platform for long-term growth and better positions us to deliver meaningful shareholder value,” says CEO Dale Barnhart, “Lydall’s filtration and engineered materials segments are expected to contribute approximately 50% of Lydall’s consolidated revenue. We expect new growth opportunities will result from manufacturing and selling complementary products and leveraging Andrew Filtration’s well established presence in faster growing Asian markets.”

In March, Lydall committed once again to growth in filtration business through the commissioning of a new wetlaid manufacturing site to make media in Rochester, NH.

According to the Lydall, the new Mini Mill is a state-of-the-art, wetlaid nonwovens production line designed to be flexible and more responsive to the needs of the customer, and is contrary to the large manufacturing assets that have dominated the industry.
This technology is designed to provide customers with customized high quality products in smaller batch sizes.

At the ribbon cutting ceremony commissioning the new line, Barnhardt said, “Since 2007 we have been working on transforming Lydall to better focus on our customers, our employees and our processes to produce high quality products. With the new Mini Mill, we have a world-class asset that can produce filtration media of high quality standards, in a cost-effective manner that will secure a competitive advantage for us on a global basis.”

The company says improved customer service and increased customer demand for smaller volumes of more specialized products helped guide the project. By investing in this compact, flexible line, Lydall says it can quickly respond to customers’ needs and offer the technology required to partner with customers in a wide variety of filtration applications. n