american filtration & separations society

This is the acronym for the American Filtration & Separations Society, a technical educational non-profit organization started in 1987 to provide a forum for exchange of information among engineers, scientists, and technologists in all areas of the fluid/particle separation field. The American Filtration and Separations Society (AFS) strives to protect and advance the values of the filtration and separations professions, and protect the interests of its members and the companies they represent. The American Filtration & Separations Society (AFS) is the premier organization in North America dedicated to providing a forum for information exchange among engineers, scientists, and technologies in all areas of the fluid/particle separation field. AFS is managed by a Board of Directors consisting of 12 elected directors, 6 officers, and the presidents of all active chapters. Each spring the Annual Technical Conference & Expo is sponsored to present over 100 papers on a wide-ranging list of subjects. Included each year is the AFS Filtration Basics Short Course. The expo showcasing industry related products and services by 75+ exhibitors is organized. Topical conferences on specific topics are held annually in the summer and/or fall. The AFS Society has predicated its existence on the dissemination of information, education, and the encouragement of research. It is developing a university textbook for high level separations technology. Two research grants, pairing universities with industry, were granted in 1998. Student poster competitions are an integral part of the annual technical conferences, while longer range plans call for expanded activities on the broad field of education. An education endowment has been established in 1998 to fund future activities. Within these fields are areas of interest involving the hardware, the appropriate filter media, the overall system and its operation, product evaluation and monitoring, instrumentation, ancillary products such as supports, resins and adhesives, requirements for specific applications, safety and health aspects, selection protocols, and particle science and characterization. Understanding the basic aspects of the processes, and the mathematical modeling of these operations will play an important role in improved design and operation. Membership is drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds, including end users, marketing and distribution engineers, product designers, research scientists, raw material designers, company management, consultants, academicians, and officials of government. Thus the interest runs from the extremely theoretical to applied engineering.