Pentair Residential Filtration LLC, a joint venture between Pentair Inc. and GE, has announced an addition to its manufacturing operation in Suzhou, China. Increasing the plant’s square footage, the facility was constructed to optimize performance and reliability in producing membrane products for the company’s Home Reverse Osmosis (HRO) line. Pentair expects to add staff members to the site’s existing 400 employees over the next year as the addition becomes fully operational. The company projects a significant annual increase in membrane element production, based upon expected sales increases in residential reverse osmosis water purification systems.

“We are pleased to expand operations in Suzhou to meet growing customer demand, and excited to bring economic growth to this region,” says Chia Kung, product manager of membranes for Pentair Residential Filtration. “Pentair maintains a steadfast focus on quality. As we created our new production lines, we improved various quality processes to ensure alignment with customer expectations for optimal membrane element performance and reliability.”

Special water filtration systems and temperature and humidity controls were installed at the Suzhou facility to meet strict sanitation regulations and to ensure consistency with quality specifications. “Critical manufacturing equipment was sent from the US,” Kung states. “We’ve taken great care to ensure that HRO membrane products manufactured in Suzhou are approved to NSF Standard 58.”

HRO membrane elements produced by Pentair are used in systems marketed by many industryleading companies. Pentair’s Suzhou facility opened in 2001, and the addition of HRO membrane element production complements existing sediment filtration, activated carbon filtration, filter housing, filter/softener control valve, and pump product lines.

Pentair Residential Filtration is licensed to use the GE brand name for residential water products, including HRO membrane elements produced in China.