Profile: Lydall Inc (LDL.N)

Lydall, Inc. (Lydall), incorporated in 1969, along with its subsidiaries, designs and manufactures specialty engineered filtration media, industrial thermal insulating solutions, automotive thermal and acoustical barriers, medical filtration media and devices and biopharmaceutical processing components for thermal/acoustical, filtration/separation and bio/medical applications. The Company operates in two segments: Performance Materials and Thermal/Acoustical. The Performance Materials segment reports the results of the Industrial Filtration, Industrial Thermal Insulation and Life Sciences Filtration businesses. The Thermal/Acoustical segment reports the results of Lydall’s automotive business, which includes Metal parts, Fiber parts and related Tooling. Other Products and Services (OPS) include Life Sciences Vital Fluids. In June 2011, it sold Lydall Industrial Thermal Solutions, Inc. On June 29, 2011, the Company sold its Affinity business.

Performance Materials

The Performance Materials segment includes filtration media solutions for air, fluid power, and industrial applications (Industrial Filtration), air and liquid life science applications (Life Sciences Filtration), and industrial thermal insulation solutions for building products, appliances, and energy and industrial markets (Industrial Thermal Insulation). Industrial Filtration products include LydAir MG (Micro-Glass) Air Filtration Media, LydAir MB (Melt Blown) Air Filtration Media, LydAir SC (Synthetic Composite) Air Filtration Media, and Arioso Membrane Composite Media. These products constitute the critical media component of clean-air systems for applications in clean-space, co mmercial, industrial and residential heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), power generation, and industrial processes. The LyPore Liquid Filtration Media and activated carbon containing ActiPure Filtration Media series address a variety of application needs in fluid power including hydraulic filters, air-water and air-oil coalescing, industrial fluid processes, diesel filtration and fuel filtration.

Life Sciences Filtration products include the LyPore and ActiPure Filtration Media developed to meet the requirements of life science applications including biopharmaceutical pre-filtration and clarification, diagnostic and analytical testing, respiratory protection, life protection, medical air filtration, drinking water filtration and high purity process filtration such as that found in food and beverage and medical applications. Lydall also offers Solupor Membrane specialty microporous membranes that are utilized in various markets and applications including air and liquid filtration and transdermal drug delivery.

The Company’s industrial thermal insulation business include non-woven veils, papers, mats and specialty composites for the building products, appliance, cryogenic, energy and industrial markets. The Manniglas brand’s product application ranges from high-temperature seals and gaskets in ovens and ranges to specialty veils for HVAC and cavity wall insulation. The appLY Mat Needled Glass Mats has been developed to expand Lydall’s high temperature technology portfolio for broad application into the appliance market and supplements the Lytherm Insulation Media product brand, traditionally utilized in the industrial market for kilns and furnaces used in metal processing. Its Cryotherm, CRS-Wrap and Cryolite products are cryogenic insulation designs used by manufacturers of cryogenic equipment for liquid gas storage, piping, and transportation. Net sales from the Performance Materials segment represented 34.9% of Lydall’s net sales during 2011.

Thermal/Acoustical

The Thermal/Acoustical segment offers a range of engineered products to assist in noise and heat abatement within the transportation sector. Lydall products are found in the interior (Dash insulators), underbody (wheel well, fuel tank, exhaust) and underhood (engine compartment) of cars, trucks, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), heavy duty trucks and recreational vehicles. Lydall’s products include ZeroClearance, AMS, Flexshield and dBCore comprising of organic and inorganic fiber composites as well as metal combinations. Thermal/Acoustical segment net sales represented 61.7% of the Company’s net sales during 2011.

Other Products and Services

The Life Sciences Vital Fluids business offers specialty products for blood filtration devices, blood transfusion single-use containers and bioprocessing single-use containers and products for containment of media, buffers and bulk intermediates used in biotech, pharmaceutical and diagnostic reagent manufacturing processes. OPS net sales were 3.8% of the Company’s net sales during 2011.