Meeting the ongoing demand for quality information and case studies on filters and filter media from across the globe, EDANA, the international association representing nonwovens and related materials, in cooperation with KNIC, presented the Filtrex Asia Conference and Exhibition for the first time in Eastern Asia, on May 29-30 in Seoul, South Korea, following two editions in India in 2010 and 2011.

More than 180 delegates representing 80 companies and institutes from 18 countries, with the largest contingents from Korea and China, attended a full 2-day long series of conference papers in sessions ranging from new filter media technologies, to market trends, air, liquid and automotive filtration, and the trends in testing and measurements. Additionally, the adjacent tabletop exhibition offered a unique business opportunity for participants to see displays from the leading filter media suppliers, testing and manufacturing equipment suppliers.

“What is particularly interesting in this first edition of Filtrex in Korea, is the impressive presence of all major players of the filtration supply chain from 3 continents, very eager to hear both about latest developments in nonwoven filter media and about market opportunities in Asia,” says Joerg Sievert, CEO and president, Freudenberg Filtration Technologies, and chairman of EDANA’s Filtration Committee.

The China Filtration Society (CFS) represented by its chairman Wan Yanxi has expressed a strong interest in EDANA’s initiative.

Thanks to increased industrial development across Asia, filtration is seeing remarkable growth as the need for quality products and a cleaner environment has prompted inspired companies to bring both standard and state-of-the-art filtration solutions to the market meeting a demand for protection of the quality of air or liquid in transportation, homes, offices and cities.

In addition to the market and technical information provided through both the conference and exhibition, the event offered a number of dedicated times for business representatives to interact with each other, including a reception with a performance of traditional Korean dancers, drummers and musicians.

EDANA announced a new edition of Filtrex Asia for 2015, in Hong Kong, in cooperation with the China Filtration Society and the Hong Kong Nonwovens Association.

In the meantime, the next Filtration Conference and Exhibition will be held by EDANA in Berlin, Germany in September 2014. Details and registration forms will be made available on www.edana.org.

“Building on the success and market acceptance of the concept of Filtrex, EDANA will be running such events on an on-going basis both in Europe and Asia, with separate editions for India alone, whose market justifies dedicated conferences,” says Pierre Wiertz, general manager, EDANA.

“Like a number of Asian countries, India has a fast growing filtration market, although the current technology is not totally at the same level as compared to other major markets. The need for ‘transition’ is well recognized and we expect significant investments in the coming years, most notably in nonwovens,” says Ritika Gupta, executive director of BCH in her paper in the market outlook session of the Seoul conference.