What Filtrex does

Filtrex S.r.l., founded in 1977 by Luigi Riolo and headquartered in Milan, Italy, designs and manufactures industrial filtration equipment for marine, refinery, offshore, and industrial applications. The company's product portfolio spans automatic self-cleaning filters (ACB, ACP, ACX, ACR, DACT/DACXT, ACW, AC, SACIL, Lamellar), static filters (Simplex, Duplex, Carbon, Coalescer, ST/DT, SX/DX), and add-on modules (Sludge Recovery Unit, Centrifugal Oil Cleaner). The technology is differentiated by proprietary operating principles — including a rotating-shaft wire-mesh filter with absolute filtration down to 4 microns, hydraulic-driven backwashing using filtered oil as the motive medium, and engine-health monitoring via cleaning-cycle correlation — supported by a fully in-house manufacturing capability in a 42,000 sqmt automated facility near Milan with CNC machines, robots, and complete testing rigs.

Filtrex makes money through a direct B2B sales model selling custom-engineered, quote-based filtration systems to three primary vertical segments: Marine & Diesel Engine (shipyards, engine makers, module assemblers, shipowners), Refinery & Offshore (major Oil Companies, EPCs, process licensors with North Sea compliance requirements), and Industrial (hydraulic, thermal, nuclear, and gas-turbine power generation). Pricing is not publicly disclosed and follows sector-typical custom quotation practice. Global distribution is via branch offices in the USA, India, Korea, and Japan, with the company also cooperating with major Ballast Water Treatment System providers.

The firm is privately held by its founder, has 11-50 employees, and has held ISO 9001 certification continuously since 1995, alongside ISO 3834-2, ASME U-Stamp, PED, and product certifications from DNV-GL, ABS, Bureau Veritas, and TÜV. Its preferred-supplier status with all major refinery process licensors and homologation by major diesel-engine manufacturers constitute the principal customer-access channels.

Name

Filtrex

Legal name

Filtrex S.r.l.

Website

https://filtrex.it

Company type

Private

Founded year

1977

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Filtrex is an Italian manufacturer of proprietary industrial filtration equipment for marine, refinery, offshore, and power-generation customers, with a 42,000 sqmt automated Milan facility and branch offices in the USA, India, Korea, and Japan.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Milano

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Filtrex designs, manufactures, and sells industrial filtration equipment for refinery, offshore, ballast water, marine, and industrial applications. Its product portfolio includes automatic self-cleaning filters (ACB, ACP, ACX, DACT/DACXT, ACR, ACW, Lamellar, AC, SACIL) and static filters (Simplex, Duplex, Carbon, Coalescer, ST/DT, SX/DX) used to filter lube oil, fuel oil, hydrocarbons, and water, plus add-on modules such as Sludge Recovery Unit and Centrifugal Oil Cleaner.

Product overview

Filtrex offers a comprehensive portfolio of industrial filtration products spanning automatic self-cleaning filters, static filters, and add-on modules across three primary application segments: Marine & Diesel Engine, Refinery & Offshore, and Industrial. The automatic filter line includes ACB (seawater), ACP (hydraulic-driven lube oil), ACX (monitoring-capable lube oil), DACT/DACXT (electric motor-driven fuel oil), ACR (proprietary wire mesh for refinery process fluids), ACW (multi-bank conventional backwash), Lamellar (mechanical cleaning for heavy fluids), AC (water filtration), and SACIL (large flowrate water). Static filters comprise Simplex, Duplex, Carbon, Coalescer, ST/DT, and SX/DX variants. Add-on modules include Sludge Recovery Unit (RM) and Centrifugal Oil Cleaner (CO), which integrate with ACP and ACX filters to enhance oil quality. The portfolio is unified by common engineering standards, shared manufacturing facilities in Milan, and compatibility across filter types for modular system design.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• ACB Self-Cleaning Automatic Filter Self-cleaning automatic filter for seawater filtration and water treatment applications, with bronze-aluminium alloy (ASTM B148C95800) construction, stainless steel armoured filter element, filtration down to 6 microns, and high TSS capability. Approved by major classification organizations.
• ACP Self-Cleaning Automatic Filter Hydraulic-driven continuous backwashing automatic filter for lube oil systems using the same filtered oil as driving medium (no external power or compressed air required). Ductile cast iron body, stainless steel armoured cartridge, withstands up to 10 bar differential pressure, and removes carbon residues down to a few microns.
• ACX Self-Cleaning Automatic Filter with Engine Health Monitoring Self-cleaning automatic filter for lube oil systems that monitors engine behaviour by tying cleaning cycle frequency to contaminant concentration, providing early warning of mechanical failures. Stainless steel armoured filtering element. Cleaning cycles scale with engine workload.
• DACT / DACXT Self-Cleaning Automatic Filter Electric-motor-driven automatic backwashing filter for fuel oil that protects diesel engine injection pumps, exhaust valves, and piston rings. Cleaning triggered by pressure drop or timer, consuming only 5-10% of filter volume. 10 micron absolute filtration with stainless steel armoured element rated to 10 bar differential pressure. DACT has square flanges for compactness; DACXT uses standard DIN PN 16 flanges.
• ACR Automatic Filter (Refinery) Automatic filter using proprietary wire mesh with a rotating shaft inside the filtering element that drastically decreases wash oil consumption during automatic backwash. Operates at low pressure drop (~0.5 bar) and achieves 100% removal efficiency down to 4 microns absolute. Designed for heavy and viscous refinery fluids including VRDS, ARDS, slurry oil, CGO, VGO, HVGO, AGO, and diesel. Reported ROI of 6-10 months.
• ACW Automatic Filters Conventional autobackwash filter with multiple filter housings assembled in parallel banks on skids with headers and automatic valves. Wedge wire filtering elements from 20 to 150 micron filtration degree. Backwash set point between 1.0 and 1.5 bar.
• Lamellar Automatic Mechanical Cleaning Filter Automatic mechanical cleaning system for heavy fluids such as heavy fuel oil, heavy crudes, and processing residues with high solid content. Filtering elements are stacks of calibrated metal disks rotated by an electric motor during automatic mechanical cleaning without interrupting feed flow. Operates at low pressure drop of ~0.5 bar. Typical filtration degree is 100 microns and above.
• AC Automatic Filter Traditional automatic backwashing system for coarse and fine water filtration, especially designed for seawater with high solids content. Used for oilfield water injection and pre-treatment of water and wastewater. Wedge wire filter surface with candle bundles in tube plate assembly and rotating backwash mechanism with low-friction material nozzles.
• SACIL Automatic Filter Automatic backwashing filter for large flowrates of water with high concentration of contaminants. Filtration degree of 1 mm or larger using a wheel subdivided into angular sectors as the filtering element. Backwash uses differential pressure between outlet and backwash discharge lines to clean sectors by reverse flow. Suited to seawater, heating, and cooling water applications.
• Simplex Static Filter Single body static filter with cartridge or basket filtering elements. Used in on-off service where volume flow must be interrupted for cleaning or replacement of filtering elements. Basket type offers trouble-free operation and ease of cleaning.
• Duplex Static Filter Two simplex filter housings connected by two 3-way change-over valves, allowing in-service cleaning of one filtering element without interrupting process flow. Filter media available in a wide range of filtration degrees with basket materials including stainless steel AISI 316L and cartridge materials including polypropylene, polyethylene, fibreglass, and cotton.
• Carbon Static Filter Active carbon filter for drastic removal of organic traces from water or aqueous fluids and elimination of hydrocarbons. Can be backwashed with reverse flow using filtered feed to remove trapped particles. Also designed for gas filtration to remove vapours such as hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, and amines, particularly in biogas applications.
• Coalescer Static Filter Static coalescer filter for liquid/liquid separation (water from hydrocarbon) and wet gas/liquid separation (liquid droplets from gas). Uses disposable fibreglass cartridges to coalesce water particles and Teflon coated mesh for mechanical separation. Special configurations available for solid particle removal.
• ST/DT Static Basket Filter Modular static basket filter for fuel oil applications that protects diesel engine injection pumps, exhaust valves, and piston rings. Can be coupled with other static filters or used in bypass with automatic filters. Acts as safety filter and pump protection, eliminating the need to dispose of used filter cartridges.
• SX/DX Static Basket Filter Modular static basket filter for lube oil applications, indicated for turbocharger protection. Can be coupled with other static filters or used in bypass with automatic filters.
• Centrifugal Oil Cleaner (CO) Add-on Module Centrifugal oil cleaner installed directly on the ACP backwash line to definitively clean backwash dirty fluid before returning clean fluid to the lube oil tank. Enables early detection of abnormal impurities such as white metal, lints, and water reaching the filter. Retrofit solution with reported ROI from 5 months.

Quantifiable outcome

• Filtration efficiency down to 4-6 μm absolute
• +5 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Donaldson Company: Donaldson is a diversified filtration manufacturer with industrial, marine, and energy segments. Comparable to Filtrex in industrial liquid filtration but with a much larger global footprint and broader gas/clean-air portfolio.
• Pall Corporation: Pall (a Danaher company) is a global leader in filtration, separation, and purification with broad coverage across refinery, marine, offshore, and industrial fluid streams — directly comparable to Filtrex but operating at much larger scale and with a broader product/service portfolio.
• GEA Group: GEA provides separation, homogenization, and filtration technology for food, dairy, marine, and process industries. Comparable to Filtrex in marine and process fluid separation but with broader application breadth.
• MANN+HUMMEL: MANN+HUMMEL is a global filtration specialist serving automotive, industrial, and life sciences. Comparable to Filtrex in industrial fluid filtration and aftermarket service, though much larger and more diversified.
• Alfa Laval: Alfa Laval provides separation, filtration, and fluid handling equipment across marine, energy, and process industries. Overlaps with Filtrex on marine fuel/lube oil treatment and refinery process filtration but at vastly larger scale and broader portfolio.
• Parker Hannifin: Parker Hannifin's Industrial Filtration division serves hydraulic, lube, fuel, and process filtration across marine, oil & gas, and industrial markets. Comparable to Filtrex on engine and process filtration with a much larger installed base and aftermarket footprint.
• Eaton: Eaton's Filtration Division produces hydraulic, lube, and process filtration equipment for industrial, marine, and aerospace markets. Comparable to Filtrex in lube oil and fuel oil filtration with much broader product breadth and global distribution.

Direct peers

• Boll & Kirch Filterbau: Boll & Kirch is a German specialist in automatic self-cleaning filters for marine, oil & gas, and industrial applications — overlapping almost one-to-one with Filtrex's ACB/ACR/ACW product family on technology, customer base, and end markets.

Others

• Roper Technologies (industrial filtration assets): Roper Technologies has historically held industrial process and analytical instrumentation assets serving overlapping end markets. Relevant as a financial/strategic acquirer type for niche industrial filtration businesses like Filtrex rather than a direct product competitor.

Regional players

• Andritz Separation: Andritz Separation provides centrifuges, filters, and drying systems for chemical, food, and environmental applications. Overlaps with Filtrex on industrial separation technology but with stronger presence in solid-liquid separation rather than marine/refinery flow filtration.

Market position

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCvFZcTz4oRVL0EKWHiuOK-g

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Filtrex