Alfa Laval has won an order from a Korean engineering company to supply heat exchangers for a natural gas project in Saudi Arabia. The order value is approximately SEK 80 million and delivery is scheduled for 2013.

The Alfa Laval heat exchangers will be used in a new major gas processing facility in Saudi Arabia where they will be recovering energy in the gas cleaning process, bringing down power consumption and CO2 emissions.

“Alfa Laval has a strong position in the oil and gas markets and has delivered reliable products and solutions for the demanding gas cleaning processes for many years. This order is also a direct result of our strong presence both in Korea and Saudi Arabia”, says Lars Renström, President and CEO of the Alfa Laval Group.

The new 242 Series manual quarter-turn gear operators from Rotork Gears benefit from the latest design technologies to provide optimum robustness and durability with minimal non-structural mass and reduced overall size.

Suitable for the operation of ball, butterfly and plug valves or other quarter-turn devices in most general industrial applications, all 242 Series manual gear operators feature a sturdy cast iron IP67 watertight enclosure, a ductile iron wormwheel, PTFE thrust washers and adjustable end stop screws.

A range of five sizes is available to accept valve stem diameters of up to 70mm (or 58mm square section) and deliver an output torque range of up to 2100Nm. Built with standard ISO base dimensions between F05 and F25, simple and rugged 242 Series gear operators are ideally suited for low torque manual applications. Options include stainless steel input shafts and fasteners, Namur and Westlock mountings, an IP68 temporarily submersible enclosure and a padlock kit.

The attached rendered CAD image of the 242 has been selected by Siemens for the Solid Edge ST5 design software splashscreen and will appear in rotation whenever users around the world start using Solid Edge ST5.

Bosch Rexroth AG surpassed its growth targets for 2011. The global supplier in the mechanical and plant engineering sector achieved sales of EUR 6.443 billion in the last financial year. This represents a rise of 27.2 percent on 2010 and is the highest sales figure in the company's history. "The 2011 financial year proves that Bosch Rexroth moved in the right direction with its strategic reorganization in 2010. We have made significant gains in all regions and business units," reported Dr. Karl Tragl, Chairman of the Executive Board at Bosch Rexroth AG, during the annual press conference at the Hanover Trade Fair.


At the end of the year, incoming orders stood at EUR 7.2 billion, a further 22 percent increase on the previous year's excellent figures. As a result, Bosch Rexroth has started 2012 with an extremely healthy order book. Nevertheless, the company is only cautiously optimistic about the current financial year. This is because of the moderate development of the mechanical and plant engineering sector in Germany in the first quarter of 2012, and the slowdown in growth in China. "We expect to see growth again in Germany in the second half of the year," Tragl said. Because China has developed into the world's largest market for mechanical and plant engineering in recent years, even slightly lower growth rates than before still offer considerable opportunities for increased sales in the region. Further positive impetus is coming from Brazil, Russia and India, as well as from an economic recovery in the USA. "In the current situation, all our forecasts suggest that Bosch Rexroth will continue its growth of recent years in 2012, even if we fall short of the 2011 rate," said Tragl... (+)