Four decades of experience in filter-making technology at Hauni have gone into developing KDF 5MF. Field tests with the drum-based multifilter maker drew a positive response from filter manufacturers.
Despite the company’s decades of experience and countless preliminary tests, they still wonder whether the machine will really be up to the challenges of a day-to-day manufacturing environment. It had been agreed with the filter manufacturer that testing should take place at their factory from April till September 2015. Now it was up to the new Hauni multifilter maker, KDF 5MF, to demonstrate its capabilities in terms of performance, flexibility, and quality. Not just in the lab but on the shop floor too.
By June, the customer’s decision-makers, having seen how well the machine was performing in the tests, were impressed enough to buy the machine.
“Quality, accuracy, and versatility are essential criteria for us,” says the customer’s group operations director. “That was why we agreed to host this five-month test with KDF 5MF at our facility. The results were so convincing that we decided to purchase the machine for our locations in Hungary and the US. Apart from having to switch formats we also use a variety of materials, so we expect the short conversion times will help to make our process more flexible.”
Whatever the choice of filters, KDF 5MF has the flexibility to switch quickly from one to the other and still ensure consistently top quality products.
“You can actually put even more flexibility into your manufacturing process by adding an optional third and fourth filter run to a KDF 5MF configured for dual filter production,” explains Marco Scheffler from Hauni’s product consulting engineering department. “As the filter runs can be combined flexibly to make a dual filter, KDF 5MF makes it possible to switch formats even faster.”
The extremely dynamic movement in the filter market makes it all the more important for a machine’s design to anticipate manufacturers’ future needs. Even in its basic version, KDF 5MF exhibits dependable manufacturing performance, a high level of precision and gentle material handling in making a wide variety of filter versions from all the materials currently used, even under the conditions of mass production.
“We can’t predict what else the filter market will come up with, but whatever the future holds in store, KDF 5MF gives us a sound basis on which to move forward,” says Scheffler. “We’ll be continuing to develop more applications for our multifilter maker in close consultation with customers.”