Our Story
| 1921 | Cecil Gordon Vokes forms the company bearing his name to manufacture and sell accessories for motor cars. |
| 1927 | Mr Vokes visits America and discovers a company making air filters for engines. Filtration technology was virtually unknown at the time, but Mr Vokes saw the potential of filtration for the engineering industry and secured the rights to manufacture filters in Britain and the Empire. |
| 1938 | Vokes purchased a property in Alton, Hampshire (UK) to cope with additional demand. This facility was used alongside the existing factory in Putney, London. |
| 1940 | A bomb falls on the Putney factory. Due to its importance to the war effort, the company was instructed by the British Government to find premises outside of London. Vokes move to Henley Park, Surrey (UK) – a large country estate which for many years had been a residence for elderly gentry. |
| 1943 | An invasion fleet from America bound for Sicily was stuck in the middle of the Atlantic with clogged engines. Vokes staff at Henley Park worked night and day for three weeks, sleeping by their machines in the workshops, producing new filters that were flown out and parachuted down to the fleet, which was thus able to resume the invasion. |
| 1955 | C.G. Vokes founds The Filtration Prize (still awarded today for the best research paper on filtration) with a £1000 donation. |
| 1958 | Henley Park redeveloped with operations centralised there. |
| 1960 | The first N-Cell HEPA filter (today named Hepatex N) is developed in Germany. |
| 1970's | Mr C.G. Vokes retires and the company is acquired by Thomas Tilling. Air filtration business is relocated to Burnley, Lancashire (UK). |
| 1973 | The FP compact filter is designed and launched in Germany by Klimatechnik-Markt, latterly a division of Vokes-Air. Today, after several redevelopments, the Compatex FP is one of Vokes-Air Group’s most popular filters. |
| 1983 | Thomas Tilling acquired by BTR Plc one of Britain’s largest and highly-regarded industrial groups. Air filtration business relocated back to Henley Park. |
| 1984 | To improve the quality control of HEPA and ULPA filters, ULPACATS (an innovative form of filter testing) is developed in Germany. |
| 1992 | The AFP gas filter is developed in Germany. Utilising activated carbon, today the AFP range has been expanded to include a number of filters for differing applications. |
| 1996 | BTR restructures its filtration businesses to form BTR Environmental. |
| 1999 | BTR Plc and Siebe Plc merge to form Invensys Plc. BTR Environmental divided with Vokes back under its own managerial control. |
| 2000 | In response to demand for greater quality and reliability from gas turbine operators, the Compatex TMP and TMPC intake filters are launched. |
| 2000 | McLeod Russel acquires Vokes filtration under its Interfilta (UK) Ltd business and relocates the air filtration operation to Burnley. McLeod Russel already owns several filtration businesses including Infiltro in Spain. |
| 2000 | McLeod Russel acquires Luwa® (the high-end filter manufacturer) from Zellweger of Switzerland. |
| 2002 | McLeod Russel acquires two Danish filter companies - Industri-Filter and Synsafe Danmark. |
| 2004 | SPX Corporation acquires McLeod Russel and renames the air filtration business SPX Air Filtration. |
| 2006 | The Eurovent Certification scheme for fine dust filters (F-Class to EN 779) is launched to combat misleading claims from some filter manufacturers. As founding members of the scheme, Vokes-Air’s products are some of the first to be tested and certified to match our publicised data. |
| 2006 | Using the latest nanofibre media, Synsafe Revo is released. Our flagship bag filter, its design provides an extremely low operating pressure drop, reducing energy consumption and costs. |
| 2007 | Macrogen GT Duo is launched for the power generation market. Utilising a revolutionary new media and design, the intake filter combines water coalescer and particle filtration in one stage. |
| 2008 | The Riverside Company acquires the entire air filtration business from SPX Corporation and renames the business Vokes-Air Group. |
| 2010 | The company is renamed Vokes Air (already a name synonymous with air filtration across the World) and ceases use of the Atex-Filter, Scandfilter and Industri-Filter brand names. |
® Luwa is a registered trademark of the Zellweger Luwa Group
® SPX is a registered trademark of SPX Corporation
