Filter quotes drafted from the customer's own specification, for your applications person to check.

A filter request arrives as a spec page, a bid section, a schedule of air handling units or the data off a used cartridge, and it rarely arrives complete. Someone at your applications desk reads it, works out what the customer actually said, chases what is missing and then decides which of your products answers it. The reading comes before any selection.

In the test, AI reads copies of those same requests and drafts a quote sheet: dimensions as stated, media and efficiency rating as stated, flow and pressure drop fields, end caps and gaskets, temperature and compatibility fields as stated, and a short list of what a person must confirm before matching a part. Your own selection on each closed quote goes in as an input. Nothing goes to a customer, and your reviewer sets every draft beside the quote your desk sent.

Nominal is a name, not a measurement. North Carolina's air filter specification lets a filter's actual face run up to five-eighths of an inch under nominal, and it sets a minimum depth for each nominal depth: 7/8 inch for a 1 inch filter, 1-3/4 for a 2, 3-3/4 for a 4, 5-7/8 for a 6 and 11-1/2 for a 12. The University of Michigan's master specification calls a V-cell 24 by 24 by 12 inches, nominal and without gaskets. UMBC's 2024 filter schedule lists 22-3/4x24x2 and 9-7/8x42-1/2x1 beside the ordinary sizes, along with rows that read TBD by 2. A tape measure on a worn unit gives a third answer. The draft holds nominal, actual and measured in separate columns and leaves TBD as an open question.

The rating line can be written in an older language. UMBC's pleated filter section asks for a dust spot efficiency as determined by ASHRAE 52.2 test methods, then requires a MERV in the next sentence, while the National Air Filtration Association's January 2026 guide says dust spot testing was removed from the standards in 2009. The University of Texas at Arlington's 2020 filter guideline asks for MERV 8 and rates filters to ASHRAE Test Standard 52-76. UMBC's same section also states an average resistance in the units arrestance normally takes, which reads like a typing slip. North Carolina lists MERV 13 and MERV 13-A as separate ratings, since MERV-A comes from the optional Appendix J conditioning step. The draft copies every rating, method and edition as stated and marks any line that doesn't hang together. It translates nothing.

A rating without a velocity is half a line. The same NAFA guide says the MERV is used along with the air velocity at which the test ran, and one independent lab's service sheet notes that ASHRAE 52.2 recognizes only seven face velocities for MERV evaluations. Specs tie their pressure fields to velocity as well, and they name them differently: New York State's master specification gives initial resistance at 500 fpm and a recommended final resistance, North Carolina has a minimum rated final resistance, and UMBC's ridged mini-pleat lists rated initial and final resistance at 2,000 cfm with a minimum operating velocity of 750 fpm. The draft carries flow, face velocity, initial and final resistance as separate fields, each with its unit and the customer's own label, and writes not stated wherever the sheet is silent.

End caps, gaskets and seals decide whether it fits at all. New York's HEPA paragraphs offer a face gasket of neoprene expanded rubber, ceramic fiber or silicone and five different media-to-frame bonds. Michigan puts a neoprene gasket of set width on the downstream face of a V-cell header, or an endless poured polyurethane seal instead. UMBC's mini-pleat has to run up to 176 degrees Fahrenheit with no metal components at all. EPA's fact sheet on pulse-jet cartridge collectors says temperature is limited by the filter media and the sealant together, so a temperature on a sheet is not only a media question. The draft records end cap style, gasket material and position, sealant, temperature and any fluid or chemical named, exactly as stated, and takes no position on compatibility.

Some fields only a person can close. North Carolina wants each filter marked with the maker's name or trade name, series, nominal size, MERV, MERV-A if tested and the UL flammability mark, but ring, link and bag filters without frames carry those markings on the packaging, so a used bag with its carton gone has nothing to read. The same state's ordering data asks for the number of pockets and the header size. Every draft therefore ends with a list for your applications person: actual size confirmed, rating and test velocity, media and construction, gasket side, temperature and fluid, pockets or header, and anything the customer left blank. Your reviewer will check that no stated value changed on the way across, no blank got filled and the list caught what your desk really had to ask.

Once your reviewer says yes, new specifications get the same drafting for about 30 days.

Your applications person approves every quote before it reaches a customer, and the match stays with that person throughout. Scoring carries on against live requests. Any further job is a separate decision at its own price, with monthly support after that.