Leading filtration, thermal management and hydrogen filtration specialist, UFI, is highlighting the exceptional properties of its advanced ARGENTIUM®, HEPA and other cabin-air technologies. These filters deliver purer air across all vehicle categories, from cars and vans to on-road and off-road heavy-duty vehicles and buses.
Among all the filters in vehicles, the cabin air filter is often overlooked. This is a mistake, because while the vehicle’s mechanical efficiency does not depend on it, the passengers’ health does. Its function is to improve the quality of the air that occupants breathe on board, by removing dust, pollutants, pollen, allergens, bacteria and mould.
Choosing a filter, however, is not straightforward, as the market offers many different types. A company such as UFI, which has been developing filter products through constant innovation for over fifty years, is not limited to offering only long-standing market solutions. The experience it has accumulated in supplying original equipment, together with the activities carried out in its research and development facilities — the UFI Innovation Centres — has allowed UFI to develop six different types of high-performance filter media, known as FormulaUFI, and to ensure their in-house production.
One of these filter media is used to make ARGENTIUM®, a revolutionary filter with a powerful antibacterial function. Produced with innovative FormulaUFI.Stratiflex technology, which involves a combination of three layers (antimicrobial, adsorbent and structural), ARGENTIUM® is made with a revolutionary, non-woven filter media containing Biomaster silver biocide – silver particles with a powerful antimicrobial action that is capable of inhibiting bacterial growth by up to 99%.
The combination of layers enables this superior passenger compartment filter not only to block pollen, dust (including from tyre wear and braking) and road dirt, but also to prevent the growth of fungi and mould and to exclude substances such as sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX).
The structure of ARGENTIUM® also includes activated carbon, which ensures a filtration efficiency of over 98.5% for particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns, and eliminates harmful gases and unpleasant odours. ARGENTIUM® is effective against microbial growth throughout its life cycle of up to twelve months.
HEPA filters for electric vehicles
The automotive world is undergoing a profound transformation, with the transition to electric mobility also requiring the adoption of advanced technologies for cabin-air filtration. Here too, thanks to its OE experience and research conducted in its UFI Innovation Centres, the company is ready to support the technological evolution of cars by producing High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters. Designed as original equipment for battery-powered vehicles, they were recently made available on the aftermarket for Tesla’s Model Y.
Manufactured with extremely high-efficiency filtration media that are already used in the health and medical sectors, UFI’s HEPA cabin filters have the ability to remove 99.975% of particles smaller than 0.3 microns: one thousand times smaller than the diameter of a hair. This means the filters trap not only atmospheric particulates and fine dust particles, but also most bio-contaminants in the air, such as spores, bacteria and viruses.
A complete range
Over the past two years, the company has added a further 36 product codes to its line-up. Of particular note is the off-road range, which has been expanded to include 16 pollen filters. Alongside 161 ARGENTIUM® filters and one HEPA item, UFI offers the market a wide range of traditional pollen and active carbon filters. Its 400 anti-pollen filters are made of non-woven fabric and can retain over 90% of airborne particles larger than 2.5 microns, while 210 activated carbon filters combine non-woven fabric with activated carbon. These prevent much smaller particles, with diameters of 0.01 to 2 microns, from entering the passenger compartment while also trapping odours.
Therefore, UFI, a global leader in filtration technologies, offers a comprehensive range of solutions. A dedicated catalogue of cabin air filters will soon be available for download, including 772 part numbers, of which 637 are for cars and vans, 80 for heavy-duty on-road vehicles and buses, and 55 for off-road vehicles. Collectively, this meets the needs of around 95% of the European fleet.
