Our most powerful weapons in the battle for clean air in the home came from the military. To protect its researchers from radioactive dust, the US Atomic Energy Commision had HEPA developed -- now the bench mark standard in air cleaning for removing harmful particles.

Gases, the other enemies of clean air, have proved much more elusive. And far more dangerous. Austin Air Systems led the way in defending indoor air from noxious gases and odors with the introduction of granular activated carbon -- the most effective medium for trapping gas.

Until now, however, granular activated carbon has been the only form available to civilian technology. Heavy and difficult to work with, it has been restricted to high end air cleaners designed for the most exacting users. Even though Austin's engineers extracted optimal efficiency from the material, it had limited effectiveness against some of the most tenacious and toxic gases in the home -- cigarette smoke and acetones, for example.

In 1998, research engineers at Austin Air's development labs learned that secrecy restrictions had been lifted on a revolutionary carbon material developed for the British Military. To protect it's soldiers in chemical warfare, the British had actually managed to weave activated carbon into a cloth. >>

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Austin Air HEGA filter

Many times more efficient thanthe granular form, this lightweight carbon cloth could protect today's mobile infantry against the most toxic chemical poisons.

In it's research laboratories, Austin's development team developed a method for combining the carbon cloth's gas trapping properties with HEPA's particle filtration. Austin's engineers dubbed their discovery HEGA -- High Efficiency Gas Absorption. The US Patent Office judged the development such a significant leap forwar that it has now been awarded a patent pending. Under this ruling, HEGA is exclusive to Austin's products.

It's ironic that military research has created benign applications for the home. But with the combined forces of HEPA to fight harmful particles and HEGA to eliminate gases, at last Austin's new technology brings the ordinary household victory in the battle for air power.