Satisfying the international market in qualified and increasingly fast manner, increasing the investments in automation, as Roberto Pasotto, CEO and General Manager of Fai Filtri Srl, explains us. Fai Filtri is the solution to filtration problems.
Once upgraded the line of products intended for the micro-filtration of fluids for wire and plunge EDM machines and enlarged the application fields of its range of separators by approaching the market of renewable energies, the company Fai Filtri aims at the growth of performance and results: not only in Italy, but going on pursuing with decision its ranking on the international market, today reaching an approximate 80% export percentage of its turnover. 2022-targets include the investments in automation, to be able to meet market demands faster and faster.
This is what Roberto Pasotto told us. He started working in Fai Filtri at the Production Department, taking care of ISO 9001 Quality and Certification, he continued his professional growth inside the Technical Office and the Sales Division; in 2009 he was appointed General Manager and finally, since 2016, he has been entrusted with the role of CEO and General Manager of Fai Filtri Srl. «We are increasing the investments in automation and replacing some essential machines – he explains us. In the meantime, we have started the enlargement works of some departments, to enhance the manufacturing capacity and to reorganize spaces efficiently».
An activity lasting over forty years
Today FAI FILTRI can rely on more than one hundred employees and on five industrial sites: besides the Italian factory headquartered at Pontirolo Nuovo in Bergamo province, there is one branch in the United States, one in Canada, one in Russia and one in Malaysia. «Fai Filtri was established in 1976 and still today it constitutes a sound Italian company headquartered at Pontirolo Nuovo, in Bergamo province–Roberto Pasotto explains-. We produce filtration elements and components for the aftermarket and hydraulics sectors, as well as for EDM, air/oil separation and industrial plant engineering. We currently offer a broad product range that includes hydraulics filters, for the air/oil separation on rotary screw and blade compressors, filtration elements for EDM machines, water and air filters for dust extraction. 2021 was a positive year and the goal for 2022 is to go on growing. Currently, also thanks to the investments and to the rise of the manufacturing capacity, we are succeeding in maintaining this trend». Bergamo enterprise has reached these economic results due to the production of about two million units yearly, marketed by a diffused network of resellers and distributors to over 800 customers in more than 80 Countries in the world. «The core business for us is the aftermarket that absorbs about 70% of our production – further highlights the CEO and General Manager of Fai Filtri -. Besides hydraulics, we produce elements for the compressed air sector, with filters for the air/oil separation, for EDM and the industrial plant engineering. The primary outlet is the European market, of which we directly take care from the Italian head office, whereas with our subsidiaries in Canada, Malaysia and United States we supply the rest of the world. The latest site set up is the one in Russia, a steeply rising market that has already allowed us to achieve excellent results and that we are going to develop further».
Production and high-end catalogue
The core business of Fai Filtri are Aftermarket filters, for which they have reached the highest compatibility and interchangeability with the machines and the filtering elements by leader manufacturers (earth handling, agricultural and building machines, industrial vehicles, compressors…). Among the company’s best-sellers, Spin-On screwable cartridge filters, they too under constant technical upgrading to make these filtering elements compatible with hydraulic and lubrication oils, glycol water, emulsions and most synthetic fluids.
«Among our high-end products certainly rank Spin-On filters, which find their primary application on suction, return and delivery lines of mobile machinery – Roberto Pasotto confirms -. Along the years, we have perfected the performances of filtering media to ensure the utmost reliability. The production cycle has been notably simplified with the passing of time. We have in fact created closed-cycle departments, where the product starts its processing, then completed in the same division, so optimizing the displacements of semi-finished products. The Research and Development department, which works at the product improvement and at the research of new materials, transversally completes production, collaborating at the activity enhancement and optimizing manufacturing cycles».
Staking on innovation
The CEO of Fai Filtri illustrates some innovative instruments and technical solutions that are fruit of in-house research. «We can certainly make the example of the series of ESD dismountable filters, Roberto Pasotto ends. Unlike conventional Spin-On, which must be fully replaced and disposed at life end, thanks to an innovative technical solution in ESD, the filtering element can be recycled. Both the flange and the container can be reused and aimed at matching the nature protection with the optimization of maintenance costs and use practicality. Another peculiarity of the ESD series is the full interchangeability with Spin-on products by Fai Filtri or by other manufacturers of the “medium pressure” (35 bars – 500 psi) family, without any modification of the housing or of original connections. The filter envelope is guaranteed for the whole life of the machine or of the plant on which it is installed and the interchangeable filtering element, featuring patented design, is available with manifold variants of the filtering media and of by-pass valve. Moreover, the opening and closing system of the housing through bayonet joint with spontaneous anti-screwing device is implemented through a mechanism of cartridge-envelope interaction with filed patent application».
