4 June 2003 www.filtsep.com

industrialnewsInvestment in filter media

production in Brazil Ahlstrom’s FiberComposite division is to invest �2 million(US$2.4 million) to upgrade the filter media manu-facturing line at its Louveira plant in Brazil.

The investment in the production line, which currentlymanufactures automotive filter media products, will expandproduction capabilities and capacity, as well as improveproduct quality. In the future, the line will also be used toserve selected nonwoven and specialty filtration markets.

The investment begins immediately and commercialoutput from the upgraded line is expectedin early 2004.The plant's normal production will continue throughoutthe modification process.

Ahlstrom has been manufacturing filtration media inBrazil since 1995. According to Claudio Ermondi, vicepresident of Engine filtration, “This investment will allowus to fulfill these market requirements, and at the sametime introduce new production capacity to meet the longterm growing demand in the South American market.”

Ahlstrom FiberComposites division is a leadingsupplier of engine filtration products to the transportindustries.The division employs over 2500 people andoperates in 16 sites in Europe, The Americas and Asia. In2002 it reported net sales of �693 million (U$820 million).

Contact: Ahlstrom FiberComposites division, Two Elm Street,Windsor Locks, CT 06096, USA. Tel : +1 860 654 8300; Fax : +1 860 654 8301.

Mann+Hummel mergesUS divisions

Mann+Hummel has merged two of its US based businesses into a single company called Mann+HummelUSA Inc.

The merger of Mann+Hummel Filter Technology Inc(Greensboro, North Carolina) and Mann+HummelAutomotive Inc (Portage, Michigan) will unite thecompany's US based automotive and industrial filtrationoperations.

Mann+Hummel USA Inc, which will be head-quartered in Portage, will have combined sales ofUS$110 million and employ over 400 people at fivelocations throughout the USA. The new companyexpects its US sales to double by 2010.

The merger of the two US businesses follows theannouncement that Filterwerk Mann+Hummel GmbH inGermany will now be known as Mann+Hummel GmbH.Other group companies affected include Filtros MannLtda in Brazil, which becomes Mann+Hummel BrazilLtda and Mann Filtr Jipap sro, which is now calledMann+Hummel (CZ) sro. Locations in Spain, Argentina,Mexico and the USA will follow suit. Each company willhave 'Mann+Hummel' in its name, along with theparticular country suffix.

According to Mann+Hummel GmbH, the namechange will not affect the products and services the itoffers, and filtration and its associated products willremain its core buisness.

Contact: Mann+Hummel USA Inc, 6400 S Sprinkle Road,Portage, MI 49002-8720, USA.Tel: +1 269 329 3900; Fax: +1 269 239 5000;E-mail: info@mannhummelauto.com; Website: www.mann-hummel.com/mhus

Polish order for turnkeywastewater treatment plant

Zenon Environmental Inc has won a turnkey project,worth in excess of US$5 million, to supply its ZeeWeed®

membrane technology to treat industrial wastewater froma major power plant in Poland.

The company's ZeeWeed membranes are already in useat the same location, where they are used to purify waterfor boiler feed purposes. The new system will treat all thewastewater from the power plant for either discharge orreuse as pre-treatment for boiler feed water.

According to Andrew Benedek, chairman and CEO ofZenon, “Many parts of the world are water short andpower plants have a great need to reuse water.” Headded, “This project is a good demonstration ofcapability to achieve full water recycle in a power plant.”

Work on the new facility is currently underway and theplant is expected to be completed by February 2004.

Zenon is a leading provider of advanced membraneproducts and services for water purification, wastewatertreatment and water re-use to both industry andmunicipalities worldwide. The Zenon group of companiesemploy over 800 people and operate from six locations inNorth America, six in Europe and one in Asia, LatinAmerica and the Middle East.

Contact: Zenon Environmental Inc, 3239 Dundas Street West,Oakville, Ontario L6M 4B2, Canada. Tel: +1 905 465 3030; Fax: +1 905 465 3050; Website: www.zenonenv.com

Merger with Majestic Refiltercompleted

ARS Networks Inc's subsidiary, ARS Products Inc, hascompleted the merger with Majestic Refilter Ltd throughthe exchange of 2 million shares of ARS' common stock.

Majestic Refilter has developed new filtration systemthat it says can substantially reduce harmful emissionsproduced by diesel engines. Its target markets are thetruck, bus, train and heavy industrial equipment sectors.

Commenting on the compeletion of the acquisition,Sydney Harland, president and CEO of ARS Networks,said, “Now that we have completed the purchase ofARS Refilter we are anxious to establish strategic allianceswith manufacturers to supply the core components neededto implement our technology as quickly as possible. Weare confident that ARS Refilter will be a majorcontributor in reducing the over 5 millions tonnes ofharmful emissions caused by the over 15 million dieselengines in operation in the US, and in excess of 50 millionworld-wide.”

Contact: ARS Networks Inc, 100 Walnut Street, Champlain, NY 12919, USA.Tel: +1 518 298 2042; Fax: +1 518 298 2813;

Website: www.arsnetworks.com