For any industry, the importance of ‘filtration’ is immense, be it for machinery or air. A good filter needs to balance the three key characteristics— filtration efficiency, long service life, and low-pressure drop. Who can understand that better than YAMASHIN-FILTER CORP, a company that has been developing filters to meet specific needs, carefully adjusting the balance between these three characteristics for the last 70 years. Incorporating the right mix of core ingredients, YAMASHIN provides its NANO FILTER, a new generation of the medium made of synthetic polymer-based nanofibers, offering a higher degree of freedom in terms of shape and size. YAMASHIN NANO FILTER® opens more possibilities for hydraulic filters for construction machinery by incorporating this state-of-the-art material in filters. “We have established our position as a hydraulic filter manufacturer for construction machinery for a long time. We are now applying the same technology in the field of air filtration as well,” says Hiroaki Yamazaki, Managing Executive Officer, Director, YAMASHIN.

YAMASHIN’s roots can be traced back to 1956 when the company had several business reorganizations and among those car oil to hydraulic was the most important. Soon, the company made a major shift by focusing on selling its hydraulic filters for construction machinery based on its strong technological capabilities. Since the beginning YAMASHIN has been committed to in-house filter media manufacturing and development. While many filter manufacturers source their filter media from external suppliers, YAMASHIN is unique as it develops its filter media technology to create market-leading, world-class filters. “This commitment to our products allows us to supply optimized filters for a wide range of applications,” says Yamazaki. The company thoroughly researches the structure and characteristics of media materials to focus on developing multi-layer glass-fiber media with various fiber sizes and thicknesses to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of the marketplace. “Our in-house R&D activities have enabled us to accelerate mass production of filters and manufacture faster than other players in the market,” adds Yamazaki. With innovation at its core, YAMASHIN’s filters are half the size compared to existing ones and last three times longer.

NANO FILTER: The Breakthrough in Filters

The company has commercialized its YAMASHIN NANO FILTER®, a synthetic polymer nanofiber, an aggregate of fibers about 300 nm in diameter and 200 times thinner than a human hair. Compared to the existing filters, YAMASHIN NANO FILTER® features higher filtration efficiency and lower pressure drop, offering more compact, light- weighted, and higher performance filter products. Thanks to these features, the company leverages this new technology to develop air filters with additional functions, including deodorization and sterilization.

The company’s NANO FILTER enables other firms to collaborate with YAMASHIN to achieve higher performance air filters. YAMASHIN NANO FILTER® can be used in office buildings, factories, railroad cars, home appliances, and more. YAMASHIN’s new product called NanoWHELPTM, which incorporates the NANO FIILTER, achieves low pressure loss with a high collection rate that purifies the air at data centers, factories, and other various places. Owing to the fineness of the fibers, NanoWHELPTM collects 95 percent of dust particles effectively without any clogging compared to other competitors in the market. Owing to its 3D structure, NanoWHELPTM achieves high porosity and a higher number of voids that help in collecting particles. At the same time, it can achieve a low initial pressure drop, which is almost 30 percent lower than other products. The product has a high dust loading rate and has acquired MERV14 certification, which is the highest rating given to measure the effectiveness of the filter.

Alongside, YAMASHIN’s NanoWHELPTM also serves hospitals for air filtration as hospitals are an environment where there is a high concentration of bacteria in the air. To reduce infectious diseases during and after surgeries, the air needs to be maintained at a certain level of cleanliness. Yutaka Tani, President of AQC Corp, a YAMASHIN group company, illustrates the instance of a hospital in Japan that had an urgent need to provide a safer and cleaner (higher air cleanliness) in-hospital environment as COVID- infected patients were admitted. Since the hospital already had multiple types of air filters installed, filter management and replacement had become complicated. YAMASHIN proposed its NanoWHELPTM that helped in eliminating management complexities. NanoWHELPTM’s long shelf life enabled the client to reduce filter replacements as compared to conventional ones. As an added advantage, NanoWHELPTM could achieve both high filtration efficiency with an ability to reduce electric consumption and CO2 emissions by 22 percent and 20 percent annually, respectively.

Continuing with the Spirit of Innovation

As more and more companies have been pushed to accelerate their sustainability initiatives such as ESG and SDGs, YAMASHIN has been following the Japanese philosophy of Rokajinitsukauru— contributing to society through filtration business—since its inception. With its state-of-the-art technology for filters, YAMASHIN will continue focusing on its R&D activities to bring novel filtration techniques to the market. YAMASHIN is accelerating its R&D for more ESG and SDGs oriented filters using bioplastics and recycled plastics. By aligning its R&D and sales teams, the company focuses on fulfilling customer needs and requests. “By grasping customer needs and responding to development capabilities, we have supported customers all over the world as a top-class company in filters for the construction machinery,” says Yamazaki. “In particular, we place great importance on the voices of our customers, so the sales staff who listen to customers regularly meet with the development department to reflect it for better product development.” In addition, the opinions of stakeholders such as investors are also reflected in product development. YAMASHIN keeps pace with customer evolution to speed up its R&D activities and offers unique construction machinery filters. Through its filtration technology, the company aims at reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 25,000 tons for improved quality of life and well-being to society. To further make a social contribution as a filter manufacturer, YAMASHIN has commercialized medical-grade masks and replacement inner sheets made using YAMASHIN NANO FILTER® to reduce the risk of health hazards.

The company is well prepared to take on the challenge of expanding the air filter business globally, strengthening partnerships with not only existing business partners, but also new partners across the globe. Using its industry- leading technology, YAMASHIN is constantly working toward its futuristic vision of adapting to changing times and bringing forth innovative strategies. In fact, the company is soon going to launch new models of NanoWHELP™ such as MERV 15, 16, and 17. “In the future, we would like to make a change in the air filter business and take on the challenge of becoming a unique manufacturer specializing in filters,” concludes Yamazaki.