Absolent Group, which has its headquarters in Sweden and subsidiaries throughout Europe, North America and the APAC region, believes that no-one should become ill as a direct result of the air quality in their workplace and everyone should have access to clean air.
Group companies including Absolent AB and Filtermist International manufacture and supply a wide range of filtration equipment which effectively removes oil and coolant mist, smoke, fume, VOCs and dust from contaminated air – playing a vital role in providing and maintaining clean air in workshops and manufacturing facilities worldwide.
Products manufactured by Absolent Group companies are used by many of the world’s leading businesses in a wide range of industries including aerospace, automotive, chemicals, commercial kitchens, food production, medical device manufacture, precision engineering, pharmaceutical and woodworking.
Interview with Olivier Jacques, Absolent Group EMEA Sales President.
Easy Engineering: What industries do you think will grow in 2021?
Olivier Jacques: Despite the initial downturn in the Automotive industry that happened when Covid-19 first appeared, we have seen a steady return and with the increasing focus on the move to electric powered vehicles we believe this industry will remain as one of Absolent Group’s core markets in Europe in 2021 and beyond.
However, we have also diversified our approaches to other business segments to be less reliant on the automotive sector. Food Processing and Commercial Kitchens are other growth industries for us – as the world’s population continues to increase, so does the need to produce enough food to feed everyone.
E.E: What solutions do you provide for these industries?
O.J: In the Automotive industry our products are used by both OEMs and Tier One suppliers – all companies that manufacture parts from metal, textiles, rubber and plastics should use effective air filtration to ensure workers are protected from exposure to hazardous airborne particles. Each process generates dry, wet or gaseous particles that we collect at the source to then be filtered. Whether it is diverse and varied manufacturing companies, or the automotive industry which is mainly made up of multinational companies – all manufacturers adhere to different quality management systems, meaning that strict production standards are present and implemented in these industries. Whatever the clean air requirement, Absolent Group has the answer!
Our filters are also used for asphalt plant and metal scrapping, but more and more they are being used in food processing plants and commercial kitchens to remove airborne vegetable oil mist particles. Mist is generated when oil is sprayed onto molds and baking equipment as a release agent, or as an ingredient or finishing agent in/on the food itself.
E.E: Tell us about product innovations and what is their impact on customers.
O.J: Absolent Group is dedicated to continuous improvement across all aspects of its business. We are currently working on a modular system which will allow a number of our products to be configured to meet specific customer requirements, and we are also introducing increasing levels of digitalization. This initiative is already underway at Absolent AB and will be rolled out to Filtermist’s Dustcheck brand later this year.
This will provide solutions perfectly suited to the needs of our customers by guaranteeing them performance and controlled efficiency.
E.E: What industries do you think will grow in the future?
O.J: My answer to this is less about industries, and more about the general perception of air quality – both externally and in the workplace. Prior to Covid, the environment and climate change were high on the agenda of most governments worldwide and improving air quality was already an important topic. The arrival of Covid has meant that more people than ever are aware of the potential dangers of exposure to airborne particles and we hope that this awareness will make people think about all potential contaminants they might be breathing in – not just virus particles. Oil mist, dust, fume and smoke can all have serious respiratory health consequences and must be dealt with effectively to reduce the number of premature deaths resulting from workplace exposures. We can therefore say that we are concerned about air quality in all of the industrial environments in which we operate.
E.E: What solutions do you bring for these changing industries?
O.J: Removing hazardous particles from the air is our core business, but Absolent Group is currently also developing a direct air carbon capture concept to remove carbon from our customers’ premises. This will help them to hugely reduce their carbon footprint without the need for complicated carbon offset reduction initiatives.
E.E: How will you adapt your solutions for the future?
O.J: We have acquired a number of companies in recent years which all operate in the field of industrial or commercial air cleaning using a wide range of technologies. We are now in a position to be able to combine technologies and expertise from across our Group companies to solve specific problems for customers. This approach will be something we will be developing over coming years and we are confident that we are unique in this respect.
E.E: How will these solutions benefit users?
O.J: This way of working means we are able to provide the absolute optimum solution to customers, designed to meet their exact requirements. This means they are not limited to a standard off-the-shelf product range which is almost what they need, but not quite. Our range of technologies and the expertise of our people means customers can be confident they are investing in the best solution available. With our wide range of standard technical solutions, the combination allows us to provide a dedicated solution to our customers.
E.E: The industrial internet of things is seen as the future. What solutions do you provide and how does this impact you?
O.J: We are aiming to launch a brand-new Industry 4.0 monitoring device later this year which will allow customers to easily monitor both the performance of their filtration system, and the ambience and air quality in their production facility. Having access to this data will enable customers to identify potential improvements and it will move us one step closer to our aim of ensuring all workers in industrial and commercial production environments have access to air which is clean and safe to breathe.
E.E: How do you think 5G will improve industrial processes?
O.J: 5G will enable some processes to be undertaken more quickly, meaning production downtime is further reduced. All engineers know that time is money and anything which interrupts or slows production can have a critical impact on the bottom line. Access to useable insights is also key to improving – the more data driven our customers are, the easier it is to see why working with Absolent Group is the right choice for their business. 5G will enable actionable data to be more accessible to everyone which can only be a good thing.
FILTERMIST
Email: sales@filtermist.com
Telephone: +44 (0)01952 290500
ABSOLENT
Email: contact@absolent.se
Telephone: +46 (0)510 484000