Fleetguard Filters is the brand name used by Cummins Filtration.
Cummins filtration began in 1958 as the Seymour Filter company. The reason behind the filtration company was to produce a high quality filter to meet the high performance requirements of the Cummins diesel engine.
The company was located in Seymour Columbus in Indiana which was near to the Cummins headquarters of the time.
In 1958 the company comprised of two employees sewing together cloth bags manufacturing lube oil filters. During 1963 the company changed its name to Fleetguard which then became the cornerstone of the diesel engine filtration industry. In 2006 the company then changed its name again to Cummins filtration although the filters still bear the Fleetguard name allowing it to stand strong in the global market.
Sixty years later Cummins filtration has become the technology leader in filtration products for heavy duty diesel engines. It has a global presence on 6 continents and has more than 4,000 employees.
From the start the company has led the industry with designing products that reduce vehicle downtime, optimise performance, minimise environmental impacts. As well as extending the life of the an engine.
Today Cummins filtration hold over 200 active patents for products and technology. They are still pushing the envelope of design and performance such as Spiratec™ technology. This has taken centrifugal filtration efficiency to new levels.
The Definition of a Filter
The definition is any material such as cloth, paper, porous, porcelain. Even a layer of charcoal or sand which a liquid or gas is passed to remove suspended impurities or to recover solid materials.
In most heavy duty applications of fuel and oil filters you will maybe see two designs, either a spin on filter or a cartridge filter. The filter has a thread cut in the centre, designed to screw on to a nipple on the filter head until it is tight against a rubber ‘O’ ring gasket. Cartridge style filters fit in the housing which has a removable lid, this allows simple access with replacing a filter. Remember to change the seal before closing the lid.
When examining a fuel and oil filters the performance measurement used is in micron. The micron is a thousand times smaller than a millimetre or 0.000039 of an inch. These microns describe the size of the particles the filters are removing from the engine oil or fuel. All fluid filters will have a micro rating.
Fleetguard Filters
All Fleetwood filters meet or exceed OEM specifications. This means the micro rating has already been approved when using a Fleetguard filter.
Three of the main reasons that operators of Cummins engines do not use Fleetguard filters are:
Many operators do not realise the advantage of using a Fleetguard filter. They automatically assume a filter is a filter not knowing the damage that can be caused. Without the proper filter media and micro rating this can damage an engine.
Operators are under the impression that Fleetguard filters are difficult to find. All that’s required is to contact a Cummins Parts Dealer like LAS.
Another problem is that operators assume, because Fleetguard filter are of higher quality than most they cost more. In some cases this is correct but you would be surprised how reasonable a Fleetguard filter is.
It might be that spending more on your “low cost” filter than for a genuine filter. Before you sacrifice quality for cost, check out this article and read the test results for yourself.
