By David Sear
According to the saying, necessity is the mother of invention.
In other words, it is precisely those people or countries that are faced with problems who come up with the best solutions.
Take Spain for example.
The popular image amongst foreigners is that this is a wonderful tourist destination: sunny beaches, rich culture, and friendly people.
Now, the hot climate may be great for holiday-makers, but it also means parts of Spain suffer prolonged drought.
In that light, it will come as no surprise to hear that Spain is at the forefront of developing desalination processes as well as other clean technologies.
When I met up with Mr Esteban Munguia Hernández (General Manager at Arflu, S.A.) he was very keen to explain more.
“Looking back, Spain has long enjoyed a reputation as a centre of metallurgy. When ore was discovered close to Bilbao, in Northern Spain, that lead to the creation of an iron and steel industry.”
“A machine industry quickly sprang up, and soon companies emerged to make process industry equipment such as pipes, valves, pumps and the like.”
“So today there are a great number of medium-sized companies in Spain who can transform metal into valuable products.”
Any many companies – Arflu included – are globally renowned for engineered products made of duplex, super duplex and the like.
Respect
Combining these proven engineering skills with an entrepreneurial spirit, companies in Spain are now developing clean technologies, states Mr Munguia.
In fact, he believes that Arflu’s own evolution is indicative of this trend.
“Just a decade ago, our family business was focused on making valves for the petrochemical sector.”
- Established over forty years ago, Arflu’s core business is the production of high quality valves.
- The company is headquartered in Madrid, with its factory located in the industrial heartland around Bilbao in Northern Spain.
- Key target industries include petrochemical, gas, water, solar and marine.
“Today we have totally modernized the company. There is a brand new factory in Bilbao and the engineering department boasts 35 people, so we can properly service our EPC clients and also develop new products to solve emerging challenges.”
“Thanks to these investments, we have been able to create new divisions to manufacture products for these clean industries, such as solar energy, desalination and the like.”
In conclusion, Mr Munguia urges everyone to pay more respect to the environment.
“We should all be more aware of how important access to clean water is. Only one per cent of the world’s water is actually drinkable. In some countries, it is actually cheaper to install desalination plants than to extract and purify ground water.”
He notes, for example, that much of Singapore’s water system is practically a closed loop, whereby waste water homes and factories is immediately purified and returned to the consumer.
He concludes: “There are a lot of global challenges ahead and we at Arflu certainly look forward to making our contribution.”
Find address details for Arflu in our Buyers’Guide+Online webpages.
