FLANDERS HISTORY
Flanders Corporation designs and manufactures air filters that are used in residences, commercial office buildings, and by a broad range of industries with a need for maintaining specialized manufacturing environments.
Aside from its residential and commercial heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems, Flanders supplies high-performance air systems to industries associated with manufacturing, pharmaceutical production, and nuclear power and materials processing. The company also designs and manufactures most of its own production equipment, as well as the glass-based air filter media for most of its products.
Flanders was founded as Flanders Filters, Inc. in 1950. The company was started by A.R. Allan, Jr., who formed the enterprise in Riverhead, New York, the home of Flanders for the first two decades of its existence. Allan created the company to manufacture technologically advanced filters that were used for specific industrial applications. Flanders' first filters were sold to operators of atomic power reactors and nuclear fuel manufacturing facilities. In the systems of such plants, Flanders' filters served as safety devices that played a critical role in radioactive containment, removing small particles that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere. From its founding to the late 1950s, Flanders relied almost exclusively on supplying filters to atomic power reactors and nuclear fuel manufacturing plants, establishing itself as one of the first companies to compete in the market for highly specialized filters.
Given the limited demand for the type of filters Flanders made during its first decade, the company's growth potential was restricted. The design and production of filters for nuclear power facilities, however, did position the company on the vanguard of technological advancements in filter development. As new demands for sophisticated filters emerged, the potential for Flanders' growth increased. Such was the case during the 1960s, when researchers discovered that the manufacturing process used by film developers could be made significantly more efficient by incorporating high efficiency air () filters and lower-efficiency filters into production facilities. Flanders responded to the discovery by expanding its filtration product line to to the new demand, marking a turning point in the company's development.
The diversification into designing and manufacturing HEPA and lower-efficiency filters added significantly to Flanders' growth potential. The lower-efficiency filters, which eventually became known as ASHRAE-grade filters, increased efficiency standards for manufacturers involved in numerous other industries, giving Flanders its first exposure to widespread market demand. The company's production output increased substantially, driving its revenues upward and stretching its manufacturing capacity to the limit. The growth sparked by the into HEPA and ASHRAE-grade filters also led to an important decision made by the company's management; the decision to vertically integrate the company's operations as it grew. As part of the production process for its filtration products, Flanders used paper media consisting of a nonwoven matrix of glass microfibers. By the mid-1960s, the company was producing its own media, giving it a level of self-sufficiency that distinguished it from nearly all its competitors.
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