What a week that was at Filtech 2011!

Well, back in the office after the Filtech 2011 show last week in the lovely city of Wiesbaden.

It was an excellent three days with what has been reported as an increase in visitors again since the last show, coming from all over the world.  It’s a long time since I’ve been stood on a stand and seen sales people operating virtually non-stop, so I’m sure that my partners at Palas will be very satisfied with the show outcomes.

Personally, it was great to see so many of my colleagues again from over 20 years of being involved in the filtration industry.

It was also a surprise to see a film crew on the stand, but apparently a German TV company were making a short piece on Palas at the show.  My mum will be proud to know that I managed to get my face on the telly (being ‘demonstrated to’) and I’m waiting for the film from my colleagues …. to prove it.

The show itself was full, with all stands occupied.  My over-riding impression from the show was the number of Asian companies showing their products at this year’s show.  From non-wovens to woven wire mesh to finished pocket and panel filter products, with the booths being very well presented, rather than what I’ve seen before which may be perhaps a little lower in quality.  A sign of the times I think?

Being a Physicist and perhaps a bit geeky, the star of the show for me was a desktop electron microscope, which when demonstrated took less than 2 mins for sample prep, followed by operation like a coffee machine with the stud and sample loaded at the front of the unit.  Excellent quality, reasonable resolution and at approx. €60K …every home should have one !  With a low cost sputtering system this really is a step forward in small scale visualisation for particles, fibre structures, membranes, loaded media etc.

As for the Palas stand, the equipment on display was virtually under continuous use.  Having offered testing on the stand, this became a bit of a double edged sword, the customers being highly impressed with seeing their medias tested in front of them, but with some bringing their entire portfolio for assessment and requiring continuous testing activity!  The MMTC 2000 Cleanable media tester and the MFP 3000 flatsheet tester were perhaps the two most occupied.

New for the Filtech show was an expansion to the Nano range of equipment.  Two new instruments were launched:

• The DEMC 1000 / 2000, a differential electrical mobility classifier, is based on an already well validated design. The DEMC (also known as a DMA) proved a hit on the stand, with much interest generated with being able to retrofit with other manufacturers CPC’s to form an SMPS.

• The U-SMPS (scanning mobility particle sizer) combines the new DEMC with the novel and patented UF-CPC Condensation Particle Counter, which allows the use of a range of fluids from water to the more common solvent butanol.  Changeover of fluids is easy and the instrument allows control of temperatures in the evaporator and condenser to offer improved sensitivity.