Originally Posted By: gr8shot
On to filters... lol. I'm trying to bring back all those brain cells I killed and remember who all we made filters for. Here goes... AcDelco, CAT, Purolator, WIX, Fram, Napa, Motorcraft, John Deere, Donaldson, Hastings (since they own Hastings). And those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. And from seeing the PO's in the database.
Now I'm DEFINENTLY NOT saying that ALL of those brands of filters are ALL made by Baldwin, cuz that'd be dumb. But they do make some filters for quite a few other mfr's. I think a lot of people underestimate the sheer amount of filters that Baldwin actually makes!
They also do in house testing for all of their filters. I got to watch and help do some analysis in that area. They burst and cycle test their filters, along with testing flow rates, and holding capacity of the filter media. A typical filter will last for around a million cycles of 0 to whatever psi, and back to zero. Performed at 1 cycle per second. You can actually watch the filter pulsate, kind of like a heart beating.
It's been interesting to read and see who knows what, and who's blowin smoke. I can already tell there's a lot of smart guys here!! I'm not going to say I know everything, or even that I know very much. Cuz I don't know a lot about filters, and even less about oil!! But now you guys know what I know... thanks, and look forward to learnin more!!
Cool!! That's just like us, We make filters for our competitors too. Even Fram.
It's a mater of economies. Should we tool up to make a particular filter, or is it cheaper to purchase it from someone else. Does the current market volume warrant the expense. Purchase units until we do get tooled up so that we have the application in out product lineup.
When we lost the Sears business to Purolator, many moons ago, every Monday morning there were Purolator trucks at our warehouse picking up Wix filters to be rebadged (with our permission)in Fayetteville as Sears Filters. Purolator didn't have the manufacturing capacity for the business they thought they weren't going to get. So they purchased our capacity and paid a premium for it. We were happy, Sears was saving 0.25 cents ($1/4 cent) a filter and Purolator ate the big bullet.
It's the way it works everywhere, no matter the business/product.
