Corning has invested big in the production of emissions filters and it is beginning to see its work pay off.

The firm's factory, which produces filters for trucks, reached full capacity in January after being slower to develop diesel filters than other companies.

In 2007 Corning sold $249 million of filters, an increase on the $164 million of the previous year and the firm says it is already leading the market for diesel filters for heavy duty vehicles.

Corning is predicting world-wide demand for diesel filters to reach $2 billion by 2011 and says it will consider its investment a success when it becomes the global leader.

The firm has not outsourced any of its production and broke ground on its truck-filter factory during the dot-com crash while benefiting from a shortage in silicon carbide meaning its aluminium-titanate filters could be produced for cheaper than the silicon carbide counterparts.

When asked by Volkswagen to ensure mass-production within a year, Corning spent $100 million on expanding the plant in Erwin, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Meanwhile, the engineers developed a new process for the filters which increased their efficiency and now the group is one of the leading producers.

Source:

Corning's Biggest Bet Yet?
Diesel-Filter Technologies, 07/03/08
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/cornings-biggest-bet-yet-diesel-filter/n20080307114509990005

Ÿ Adfero Ltd