Industry: Agriculture
The Situation: End-users aggravated by filters that aren’t meeting their expectations is not the kind of feedback OEMs want to hear. But this was the situation for a Donaldson agriculture customer who had an issue with an underperforming underhood radial air intake filter from another manufacturer. End-users of the agriculture company were reporting field failures due to filters that were not holding up to the off-road conditions. Fine dust was bypassing the filter seal, and as a result, end-users operating their equipment in harsh, dusty environments were experiencing a short filter life and extra costs due to unplanned maintenance and replacing secondary filters more often.
The Challenge: Our customer approached us with a number of goals in mind to address the issues with the failing filter. First, the new filter needed to be robust to withstand the heavy engine vibration typical of an off-road agriculture environment. Additionally, the filter seal needed to be redesigned to eliminate leak paths. Finally, reduced restriction was required to extend the life of the filter.
Our Solution: Donaldson Ultra-Web® Media Technology
To meet our customer’s requirements, we proposed a better-sealing design, higher efficiency filter media and lower restriction. Our dual-compression sawtooth design with fully encapsulated pleat ends was used to ensure that there were no leak paths under heavy vibration. We used our Ultra-Web® media technology to increase the efficiency and dust-holding capacity of the filter. The proprietary Ultra-Web media uses a trade-secret process that produces a web of resilient fiber with very fine interfiber spaces that trap dust on the media surface. Designing the filter with lower restriction also added value for the end-user by improving fuel economy.
— OEM Marketing Team
The Outcome: With a well-sealed, efficient Donaldson filter that offered lower restriction, agriculture equipment end-users experienced a reduced total cost of ownership and less unplanned downtime. In fact, filter efficiency improved from 99.90% to 99.99% and filter life increased by 30 percent. These improvements ultimately led to end-users saving $130 USD per year in operating costs and the agriculture company processing fewer warranty claims.
Donaldson filtration experts can help resolve the pain points experienced by end-users and support OEMs by defining, building and supporting the value story to the end-user.
