TURIN - Ahlstrom-Munksjö is to ramp up the saturating capacity at its Turin plant in Italy to support strong demand for high performance filtration media.

“Based on current strong customer demand, we see a need to expand our saturating capacity,” said Giuseppe Costa, VP Filtration EMEA and APAC. “We have evaluated various options and came to the conclusion that restarting the saturator we already have in place in Turin is the quickest and most reliable way to bring qualified capacity to the marketplace in a very short period,” he added.

The decision to restart one of its existing saturators follows a series of investments announced by the group in the last few years to strengthen the company’s industrial platform and support demand growth in the industrial and engine filtration industry globally.

Recent investments to strengthen the platform include a new saturator in Madisonville, Kentucky, US; a machine rebuilt in Binzhou, China; capacity expansions in Fabriano, Italy and Malmedy Belgium; and a new micro glass line in Turin, Italy.

“Being able to provide additional saturating capacity to our customers in such a short time frame is great news,” said Willy Bordignon, VP Filtration Americas. “It will enable us to support our customer needs moving forward, both in industrial and engine filtration not only in the EMEA but also in other regions including the Americas,” he continued.

The saturator is expected to restart no later than October 2021.