Donaldson Filtration, heavy duty filter specialist for agricultural and construction machinery

Donaldson is one of the world's largest and best-known brands for air filters, oil filters, hydraulic filters and cabin filters. In this article we delve into the history of the company behind these filters and what gives Donaldson a leading position in filtration.

Donaldson, the company and history

Donaldson has been fully focused on filter innovation and development since 1915. Starting with the first air filter for a tractor, the company has grown into a major global player with more than a hundred locations worldwide, a turnover of more than 3 billion dollars, more than 2,700 patents and 14,000 employees. Impressive figures and in this blog we look further at how Donaldson got to this point. Funny fact about Donaldson is that their first filter was also the very first air filter ever on a machine.

Best known is that Donaldson makes filters for mobile applications, such as trucks, cars, construction machines, tractors and other agricultural machines. With a strong focus on this market, you would almost forget that they also use more than a third of their filters in industrial applications and life science. Did you know that Donaldson even produces filters for use in space travel, chip machines and nuclear reactors?

Some facts about Donaldson

In 2022, Donaldson achieved a turnover of $3.3 billion.
Donaldson has three divisions; mobile applications, filters for industry and life science.
14,000 people work for Donaldson worldwide.
In the past three years, Donaldson has been granted more than 1,200 patents.
In total, Donaldson has more than 2,700 patents
The production of the filters takes place all over the world and Donaldson has a total of more than 140 locations worldwide.
In 2022, Donaldson achieved 65% of their turnover from the sale of filters for vehicles, construction equipment and agricultural machinery

In the coming years, the company expects that the life science branch in particular will grow. To this end, they have made several acquisitions and their market research indicates that this market is even larger than that for mobile applications. In total, Donaldson estimates the market for mobile applications at around $14 billion and the Life Science branch at more than $20 billion.

Donaldson filters for construction machinery

Donaldson for trucks, construction machinery and agricultural machinery

Donaldson has an extensive range of air filters, oil filters, hydraulic filters and cabin filters for mobile applications. The range covers such a wide range of applications that you can always find a filter that fits your machine. At Boar we have linked these directly to the machines in our database. If you want to know whether Donaldson filters are available for your specific machine, you can use the link below to go to our brand-model webshop for filters for Caterpillar, John Deere, New-Holland, Liebherr, Fendt, Massey-Fergusson, Volvo, etc. Hitachi, Komatsu and many more.

Filters for Caterpillar

Filters for John Deere

Focus and innovation of the company

As mentioned above, the focus is mainly on their three major markets, but a new branch will also be added; filters for electric vehicles. You see more and more electric cars, trucks and construction machines coming onto the market and you would say that they need fewer filters. But just like everything that needs to be heated or cooled on a traditional combustion engine, filtration is necessary to keep this process clean. Battery packs require a lot of airflow and often need to be cooled to perform optimally. In this cooling process you need filters to maintain clean air or liquid. Actually just like the coolers on traditional machines. Hydrogen-powered vehicles also require filtration. Just like with diesel, you want the fuel to end up clean in the generator or engine. These filters are of course different from a traditional fuel filter, but the essence remains the same.

Innovation has always been one of the company's strengths and for good reason. The company expects this to be the biggest driver of organic growth. Especially with a clear view of where the world is going in terms of electrification and fuel cells, it is good to know that Donaldson is already developing the products for this.

Donaldson Synteq™ Media

One of the most important areas of innovation for Donaldson is without a doubt filter media. This is the material through which the air, liquid, oil or gases must pass to come out clean on the other side of the filter.

Donaldson recently introduced Synteq™ Media. What makes this filter media special is that it has a high degree of purification, so it removes many impurities from the liquid, but it also has a high capacity, so it can retain many impurities before it becomes clogged. This is contradictory, because you would expect that if you remove a lot of impurities, your filter will also become clogged more quickly. Typically an innovation that shows how far Donaldson goes to bring the best filters to the market. The advantage for you as a user of the filters is that your liquids are filtered significantly better and that you do not have to replace filters as often as with other brands. This not only saves you time, but ultimately also money.

Donaldson Filter Minder™

Another innovation is the introduction of the Filter Minder™ sensors that tell you exactly when the air flow through your filter is prevented because it is clogged. Every filter is clogged at some point and this cannot be avoided. These sensors tell you when you need to replace the filter. A clean air filter is essential for your machine. If you don't have a clean air filter, your engine has to work harder, resulting in higher consumption. In the worst case, poor air filtration can even lead to major and expensive engine damage. Because the risks of not replacing air filters in time are so great, you want to do this in a timely manner. Many mechanics and workshops plan periodic filter changes to ensure that the filter change is done on time. With the Filter Minder™ sensors you know exactly when to replace and prevent premature or late replacement.

Brands that trust Donaldson

Donaldson filters can also be found in machines under other brand names. Almost no machine manufacturer makes its own filters and relies on specialists such as Donaldson. The list of brand names where you can find the filters is enormous. In the Boar webshop Donaldson we have filters for all the brands below and many more.

Donaldson filters for agricultural machines:

Agco, Case, New Holland, Claas, Deutz, Fendt, John Deere, Landini, Manitou, Massey Ferguson, McCormick, Renault Agriculture, SAME and Valtra

Donaldson filters for construction equipment:

AtlasCopco, Bobcat, Case New Holland, Daewoo, Doosan, Dynapac, Fermec, Fiat-Kobelco, Furukawa, Hitachi, JCB, Komatsu, Liebherr, Linde, MCFE, Merlo, Sandvik, Terex, Toyota, Volvo CE

Donaldson filters for engines:

Cummins, Detroit Diesel, Honda, Isuzu, Iveco, John Deere, KHD, Komatsu, Kubota, MAN Engines, Mercedes Benz, Perkins, Scania, Sisu, Steyr Motors, Yanmar Diesel

Donaldson filters for trucks:

DAF, Daimler, FIAT, Ford, International, Isuzu, Iveco, MAN, Renault Truck, Scania and Volvo

If you would like to see immediately whether we have Donaldson filters for your brand of machine, click on the link below:

Brand-Model Webshop

Donaldson product lines

Donaldson produces all types of filters that you can encounter in your excavator, tractor, bulldozer or shovel. Whether you are looking for a hydraulic filter, air filter, cabin filter or fuel filter for your machine, you can be sure that Donaldson has it in its range. Below we highlight a few of the product lines.

Donaldson Blue®

This filter range is completely focused on a long lifespan. Due to their long lifespan, the filters from the Donaldson Blue line last up to 4 times longer than filters from competing manufacturers. This saves you time and money, because you don't have to replace your filters as often. With the air filters of the Blue line, this is due to the patented Ultra-Web® filter media. Normal cellulose does not retain the fine dust at the surface of the filter media, but only deeper in the filter. This means you need more material than with Ultra-Web media. The result is that your airflow through the filter is limited with a traditional cellulose filter material. The Ultra-Web filter media allows much greater airflow, better for the performance of your machine. In addition, the filters with this media last much longer, which reduces your maintenance costs.

PowerCore® Series

Best in class filtration with Donaldson Powercore airfilters

This range of air filters has been part of the Donaldson portfolio for more than 20 years. Because this series has been around for so long, a lot of experience has been gained in practice. This practical experience has resulted in continuous development of this series. The advantage of the long lifespan of this series is that you encounter it on many machines. What makes these air filters special is that in addition to good airflow, they also capture much more dust than competing air filters. This means your engine will last much longer and you will have less chance of expensive repairs. There are practical examples where the engine of trucks in the mining industry lasted up to 30% longer. This was easy to compare, especially in mining, with many of the same machines and engines. What also makes this filter series useful is that you can easily replace the primary filter. The housing with clips makes it easy to open and access the filter. You don't need any tools for this.

Donaldson Endurance™

This product line is especially for heavy-duty applications and is more robust than competing filter brands. If you are careful with your machines, this product line is highly recommended. With the Synteq™ media technology, more impurities are removed from your oil, fuel or coolant. Now it is going a bit far to fully delve into this material, but in short you can say that this filter media has a finer and more monotonous fiber pattern. This ensures that smaller particles can be captured without reducing the flow through the filter. In addition, this filter also lasts longer because the design assumes that this filter can have a hard time. This is partly reflected in the better seal on the filter head.

Donaldson Duramax™

We have already written a separate blog about the Duramax™ series. If you would like to read this article, the link to the article is below. The Duramax series is characterized by its extremely sturdy construction for heavier applications. Normally you have the thread of a spin-on filter at the oil passage in the middle of the filter. That is not the case with this filter. With the Duramax, the thread is placed as far out as possible on the filter housing. This gives the thread much more surface area between the filter and filter head. What this means is that this filter is much more resistant to heavy work, which puts a lot of vibration and pressure on the filter. Vibrations will eventually cause your filter to leak. You want to prevent this, especially with higher pressures, for example in construction machines.

If, following this article, you would like to see which Donaldson filters we have at Boar, go directly to the Boar Donaldson filter catalog by clicking on the link below:

Donaldson Webshop

Donaldson Cross Reference

If you want to know which Donaldson filters are the right replacement for your original brand filter, consult our Donaldson Cross Reference tools. Click on the links below and enter your original article number in the search bar to immediately see all Donaldson alternatives:

Donaldson cross reference air filter