Industry of genius Few companies hold such a special position in Swedish industrial history as Alfa Laval. Along with a few other fellow giants, the company has come to symbolise the Swedish engineering tradition from the 19th century onwards. A master of reinvention, Alfa Laval continues to provide ingenious solutions to a wide range of industries across the world to this day. By Pia Petersson | Photos: Alfa Laval
Having invented the world’s first continuous centrifugal separator to separate milk from cream, Gustaf de Laval founded the company, then known as AB Separator, in 1883. Quickly, the company developed and enhanced the technique to, among other things, also clean up oil in the engine room of ships. “Today, the same technology is used to clean the oil mist from the exhaust gases from trucks – which is helping China to clean up its air,” begins Sameer Kalra, president of the marine division at Alfa Laval.
Three key technologies The core of the company’s activities these days can be divided into three technolo82 | Issue 126 | July 2019
gies: heat transfer, separation and fluid handling. These processes are clearly vital for plenty of industries worldwide. Indeed, Alfa Laval’s products are sold in roughly 100 countries across the globe and are used in the manufacturing of such diverse commodities as food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, starch, sugar and ethanol. Furthermore, Alfa Laval products can be found on board vessels, in the mining industry and refinery sector, as well as treating wastewater and creating a comfortable indoor climate. These days, sustainability is high up on the agenda. “Our products and solutions play an im-
portant role in the processes of cleaning or reusing water, increasing energy efficiency or ensuring that we minimise the use of natural resources in industrial processes. Working with sustainability also makes an impact on the customers’ bottom line in terms of, among other things, reduced energy costs, less water and chemical consumption, and less waste or even reuse of waste product,” Kalra explains.
Sameer Kalra, president of the marine division at Alfa Laval.