Industrial news 7Filtration+Separation October 2005

Cummins Inc and China’s ShaanxiAutomobile Group Company Ltdhave signed an agreement to forma 50/50 joint venture company,Xi’an Cummins Engine Company(XCEC), to produce the CumminsISM 11-litre heavy-duty engine inXi’an, the capital city of westernChina’s Shaanxi Province. TheISM is one of the flagship enginesof Cummins heavy-duty productline.

The companies will initiallyinvest US$24 million in capitalinto the joint venture company,which will have access to theCummins 11-litre, full-electronicISM engine platform from 305 to440 horsepower.

Construction of the plant couldbegin as soon as the fourthquarter of 2005 and productioncould start as early as the thirdquarter of 2006.

The market for heavy-duty truckswith payloads greater than 15

tons is expected to be around 200000 units by 2010. The jointventure’s projected production is50 000 units by 2010.

• Cummins Inc has also signed ajoint venture agreement withScania CV AB, to producenext-generation fuel systemsfor heavy-duty on-highwaytrucks. Cummins-Scania XPIManufacturing LLP is a 50-50joint venture, which builds onCummins-Scania partnershipson fuel systems developmentand manufacturing that date toJanuary 1992. The twocompanies currently worktogether in Columbus toproduce the HPI fuel system,which eventually will bereplaced by the XPI (Xtra-High Pressure Injection)system.

• And Cummins has also beenrecognised for its economic,environmental and socialleadership by Dow Jones,

which added the company toits Sustainability World Indexfor 2005. The index representsthe top 10 percent of the

world’s largest 2,500 companiesin these corporatesustainability metrics.

www.cummins.com

Cummins announces new JVs

Ahlstrom adds nanofibres to US portfolio

Millipore, Gen-Probe developNAT products

Ahlstrom is to add proprietarynanofibre production capabilitiesto its filtration business in NorthAmerica.

This new line will allow thecompany to apply nanofibres to avariety of filtration andnonwoven media that itproduces.

“The addition of this technologyto Ahlstrom’s portfolio will bring

significant advantages across ourglobal product offering,” saidRandal Davis, senior vicepresident of filtration.

“Not only will our traditionalengine filtration media beenhanced, but we plan onbringing nanofibres to otherapplications in air and liquidfiltration,” he added.

www.ahlstrom.com

Cummins will hope that its chinese joint venture with Shaanxi should increase thenumber of Cummins’ engines in the region. (The image shows vehicles inShanghai.)

Millipore Corp and Gen-ProbeInc have formed an alliance todevelop and manufacture nucleicacid testing (NAT) products, formicrobiological and virusmonitoring in the biotech andpharma industries.

Millipore’s sample preparationtechnology is able to isolate asingle micro-organism from largevolumes of fluid, while Gen-Probe’s NAT technology canamplify and quickly detect

miniscule quantities of RNA,specific to certain micro-organisms.

Microbiological monitoring ofmanufacturing processes is criticalin ensuring patient safety andmeeting regulatory requirements.The companies expect to launchthe first of a series of rapidbiological testing products during2007.

www.millipore.com / www.gen-probe.com