Endustra Filter Manufacturers Inc.: Driving Success with Quality Filtration Solutions
At Endustra Filter Manufacturers Inc., team members are driven to keep the company successful, President Robert Geyer says. “Everyone who works here believes in what we’re doing,” he says. “We’ve been blessed with great people who all push in the same direction and keep that wheel moving forward.”
Based in Schererville, Ind., Endustra manufactures intake filters and filter silencers, as well as replacement intake filter elements and dust-collector cartridges. Geyer notes that its products are used in virtually any application requiring air supplied by blowers, centrifugal air compressors and industrial fans. “These markets include energy, steel and petrochemical production; municipal and industrial wastewater treatment; potable water treatment; electronics [manufacturing], bottling, baking – the list is virtually endless,” he says.
Geyer’s father, Robert E. Geyer II, founded the company in 1968. “We started as an industrial supplier to the local steel industry, and then began manufacturing as Endustra in 1971,” the younger Geyer says. “We developed a distribution and manufacturer’s representative network in the late 70s and 80s.”
Today, all of the company’s operations take place in its 50,000-square-foot facility in Schererville, Geyer says. “All of our engineering, R&D, sales, manufacturing and warehousing takes place right here,” he says. “More than 99 percent of our raw materials are manufactured in the United States.”
Additionally, Endustra employs a staff that has virtually no turnover. “Most of our associates have been here more than 10 years,” Geyer says, noting that the company has rewarded that employee loyalty with profit-sharing programs.
However, “The real credit, I think, to the quality of our staff is that our customer-first culture inspires pride and loyalty,” he says. “Good people appreciate the opportunity to do good work, and everyone benefits, particularly our customers.”
One such customer, Steve Pucciani, engineering manager for Cincinnati-based ITW Paxton Products, agrees. “[From Endustra], we got a solution that our end customer needed vs. an existing product forced onto us,” Pucciani says.
“Now, from the look of the filter to the labeling on the box, our customers recognize our filters as a Paxton product with Enduralast® technology. Endustra designed and built the product that I needed.”
Waving the Flag
Endustra’s flagship line of products is its Tri-Vent® Series of intake filters and filter silencers, which “offer performance and value that leapfrog other existing intake filter technologies,” Geyer says. He adds that the products reduce inlet filter energy consumption by up to 50 percent over competitive products, without compromising their efficiency.
He adds that he is extremely proud of the Tri-Vent Series TK Manifold Intake Silencers, the latest addition to the line. “Essentially, we have applied our patented Tri-Vent technology to high-capacity applications, previously beyond the reach of cartridge filters,” he says.
For instance, what would take eight to 12 heavy panel filters in an older design requires only two lightweight cartridges with the Series TK products, Geyer says.
In addition, “The filters are smaller, lighter in weight and include all of the proven performance benefits of our single cartridge design,” Geyer continues, “reducing energy consumption by enough to pay for the filter in a year.”
Additionally, the TK design makes the process of changing the filters take only minutes and can be performed “easily by only one person, without tools, and usually without ladders,” Geyer says.
“The performance of the [Endustra] product, and specifically what it does to protect our customers’ important investments, is hands down better than anything else,” Steve Pucciani says. “We offer the longest warranty in the marketplace, and we no longer have filtration-related warranty claims. When we use Endustra, we simply don’t have problems.”
Saving energy has been an area of focus for Endustra for a long time, Geyer adds. “When ‘green’ was the color of money, as opposed to an industry buzzword, Endustra recognized that energy costs easily exceeded filter costs in most industrial and municipal wastewater applications,” he says.
“Reducing the energy consumption of a 75- or 100-horsepower motor by only 1 percent would pay for a brand new filter housing every single year,” he says. “The Tri-Vent, on average, reduces power consumption by 4 to 5 percent. As a result, energy savings alone pays for a Tri-Vent in less than a year.”
Keeping Committed
Looking ahead, “We’re going to stick to our guns,” Geyer says, explaining that Endustra is committed to manufacturing. “We have products now that other companies don’t have. We’re able to do things that other companies are unable to do in the filter industry.”
Although Endustra has not encountered competition from overseas, “I suspect we will someday, and I suspect that we will be able to compete,” he says, noting Endustra continuously reinvests in its operations.
“Since 2003, we have completely retooled the plant and already we are upgrading some of that relatively new equipment,” he says, adding that the company recently purchased CNC machines. “We see Endustra as ‘the future of filtration,’ and that means filtration is our future, too. We are already at work on a successor to the Tri-Vent Series because we know that while we may have industry-leading performance today, we cannot afford to coast.”
In addition, “I think there’s still a future for manufacturing in the United States,” Geyer continues. “We’ll have to keep making things that the rest of the world hasn’t figured out yet.”