What's it all about, Alfa? Alfa Laval is all about valves and other industrial processing equipment. The company is organized around its three main product lines: Separation (centrifuges), Fluid Handling (pumps and valves), and Heat Transfer (heat exchangers). Its equipment and services are designed to help optimize processes such as heating, cooling, separating, and transporting products (beverages/food, biofuels, chemicals, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals). The group introduces more than 35 new products each year, which are sold worldwide. Alfa Laval counts BASF, Bayer, Heineken, Shell, and Tetra Laval as customers. Gustav de Laval, who invented the centrifugal separator, founded the company in 1883.