report
3.4.10 Profiles of selected key companies

Donaldson Company, Inc.

Donaldson company, Inc was founded in 1915 by Frank Donaldson Sr. who developed the first simple air cleaners and is now a worldwide provider of filtration systems and replacement parts. Crop fires in the late 1920s caused by engine sparks led to a diversification of the company's products.

During the 1970s they applied their technology to develop filtration solutions to clean inlet air for gas turbines. Today Donalson, Inc. develops and produces air filtration systems used in power generation, oil and gas production and for the petrochemical industry.

On the basis of computer disk drive technology the company applied their technology to micro-filtration problems in the 1980s. Now, the company is able to provide products for a variety of applications. These applications encompass cleanrooms, semiconductor processing as well as automobile and aircraft cabins.

Donaldson, Inc. offers a broad spectrum of filtration solutions. Their products range from initial system design through replacement products.

Donaldson's latest developments are nanofibre filter media for air and liquid filtration applications, especially industrial vacuum cleaners.

Koch Membrane Systems, Inc.

In 1963, Koch Membrane Systems (KMS) was founded as a privately held company under the name Abcor, Inc. Its goals were to develop and commercialise equipment based on separation and purification technologies of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1970, the company added semi-permeable membranes to its product line. These membranes were successfully sold so that all other separation technologies were abandoned. KMS was born and became a world leader in the field.

Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts with subsidiaries round the world.

In addition to Ultra filtration, reverse osmosis micro filtration and nanofiltration belong to the company's portfolio. KMS sells its products in a variety of global markets that include municipal drinking water and industrial wastewater.

With annual sales of about $100 million the company is the largest manufacturer of industrial ultra filtration equipment in the world.

MAHLE GmbH

The Mahle Group was founded in 1920 by the Mahle brothers in Germany. The company has grown from a small test workshop to a global acting system supplier. Its products range from combustion engines via air management systems through liquid management systems. Mahle also serves the market for industrial filtration.

In 1962, the company has begun with the development and manufacturing of industrial filters in its plant in Öhringen, Germany. Now, its filtration product portfolio consists of fluid engineering, dust separation and automatic filtration.

Mahle provides customer-specific filtration solutions for passenger cars as well as for commercial vehicles. A variety of filter elements is used to filter the intake air. Their metal-free filter cartridges with efficient filters show a dust efficiency of up to 99.9%. Mahle has introduced filter media with higher efficiency and dust holding capacities than common cellulose media. In the meantime, nanofibres for filtration purposes have been developed and optimised for mass production.