Mr. B.K. (Shirish) Patwardhan has been responsible for popularizing the concept of Engine Mounted Centrifugal Oil Cleaners in India when his company MegaSoft Micro Controls (P) Ltd (MMC) was appointed as the exclusive distributor of Glacier Metal Company (UK) Ltd a part of T&N Group UK in 1991.
MMC was responsible for introducing Glacier Centrifuges at Kirloskar Oil Engines, Pune, Greaves Ltd, Pune and Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi for OEM fitment in 1992.
In 1996, T&N Group was sold to Federal Mogul USA and the Glacier Centrifuge was renamed as Federal Mogul Centrifuge. In August 2000 Federal Mogul sold their Centrifuge Division to Mann+Hummel (Germany) and the product was known as Mann+Hummel Centrifuge.
Between 1996 to 2000, there were discussions between MMC and Federal Mogul of joint venture manufacture of centrifuge in India, however the plan was brushed under the carpet when M+H took charge of the operations in 2000.
MegaSoft Micro Controls changed their name in the year 2000 to Filteredge (P) Ltd as they wanted the name to be synonymous with the product, they were marketing.
Filteredge remained an exclusive distributor of Mann+Hummel UK Ltd until May 2004 and manufactured the FT600s in Goa for onward sale to The Indian Railways.
The patent for Centrifugal Filters expired in August 2000.
On May 5th 2004, Shirish Patwardhan, Managing Director of Filteredge (P) Ltd, joined hands with Mr. Meirion Bodman, (Engineering Head of Mann+Hummel Centrifuge division at UK) to form a new company known as Filtek (India) Pvt. Ltd with a view to manufacture the complete range of centrifuges indigenously.
Mr. Bodman with his extensive knowledge and experience in centrifugal filtration technology was responsible for setting up the complete plant at Chard, Ilminster, England for Mann+Hummel (UK) Ltd.
Filtek (I) Pvt Ltd setup a plant in Pune (170 kms from Mumbai) and got an ISO approval from TUV only within 5 months.
Filtek (I) Pvt. Ltd also got RDSO approval as vendor for The Indian Railways.
Filtek (I) Pvt. Ltd are the approved vendors for Tata Motors Ltd, Alfa Laval Ltd. and Thermax Ltd. for supplying centrifuges.
Filtek (I) Pvt. Ltd has invested in all the tooling, dyes for castings and press parts. All our products are tested 100% prior to dispatch.
Filtek exports globally to UAE, HongKong, Singapore, Canada, USA, Italy, Korea, and Greece and currently enjoy a large customer base.