As a key manufacturer of products required by diverse industries including oil and gas, construction and transportation, Alaa Industrial Equipment Factory (AFI) is perhaps unmatched in the Middle East in technical expertise and market reach. 

From AFI’s manufacturing facilities in Dammam emerges a product portfolio that includes seals, gaskets, hose assemblies, hydraulic systems and rubber items.
Other activities include a pump service centre, a mobile equipment division, a chrome-plating plant, trading in industrial equipment and customer sales and support.
AFI has 18 branches across the region, with its head office and manufacturing facilities located in Dammam. An ISO 9001-2000 certified company, it is fully owned by Ibrahim Ali Al Rashoodi. 
 “Since 1984, AFI has been a dependable source of industrial products and services to ensure exceptional reliability, long life and top efficiency across various industries,” says marketing manager Jolly Joseph.
“The aim of all activities of the company is to serve the customer in the best possible way. AFI’s growth has been continuous and all the while customers have appreciated our policy of serving them with the utmost respect, honesty, and friendliness.”
The diversity in the organisation is a considerable strength, enabling it to leverage opportunities across industries and geographical areas, comments the official.
“AFI’s manufacturing facilities are second to none and comply with safety, environmental and quality standards, while also having highly skilled personnel and sophisticated equipment,” he adds.

Seals
The company is the sole manufacturer of Seal Jet-AFI seals in Saudi Arabia.  These are machined and not moulded. Manufactured according to international standards, the seals are made in any shape and size (from 5 mm to 600 mm) within one hour and with the standards of PUR, VITON, NBR, EPDM, Silicon, and Teflon. With this unique service, equipment downtime due to seal failure is reduced to a minimum.
The tolerances used are according to DIN ISO 7151(general tolerances) and DIN ISO 7168 T1 (basic ISO tolerances). Special shapes and items such as wipers, lips and lip seals, rod seals, square rings, V-packing sets, Chevron packing, piston seals, O-rings, guide rings, back-up rings, rotary seals and oil seals are manufactured according to seal jet tolerances.
The company has also forged a joint venture partnership with AES Engineering Ltd UK, one of the leading manufacturers of mechanical seals in the world. 
“This collaboration extends to the manufacture, test, repair, sales and service of mechanical seals.  We carry a large stock of modular component parts from which over 11,000 different sizes, faces, elastomers and metallurgy combinations in the size ranges of 1 inch to 4 inches and 24 mm to 100 mm can be built, tested and supplied at short notice,” said Joseph. 
The AFI-AES mechanical seal range is competitively priced and service and technical support is always available from our head office in Dammam.  This includes on-site presence (if requested and at no charge) for customers during installation and commissioning of any cartridge seal supplied. 
In addition to the standard range of AFI-AES seal cartridge mechanical seals, AFI is able to build and supply mechanical seals that conform to the requirements of API610, ANSI and ANSI, DIN 24960, DIN 24960C etc.
AES Seal has a comprehensive engineering design capability and offers custom-designed seals to meet market needs where appropriate.

Gaskets
AFI has been one of the leading gaskets manufacturers in the kingdom. With the recent acquisition of Dhahran Gasket factory AFI has increased the production capacity of all sorts of industrial gaskets, which can be made from any non-metallic material in any size and shape up to 1000 x 800 mm. The gasket factory manufactures spiral wound gaskets, metal-jacketed gaskets, pre-cut non-metal gaskets, teflon (PTFE) enveloped gaskets and corrugated gaskets,
The company also supplies ring joint gaskets, and graphite, non-asbestos, teflon and rubber sheets.  Packing materials of various types are supplied.
Hose assemblies
AFI Dammam is one of the leading hose assembly specialists in the region with a crimping facility of up to 6 inches and an exclusive range of hoses and fittings.
“AFI is the most preferred supplier for major drilling companies and is the distributor for the Aeroquip brand hydraulic hoses,” says Joseph. “Every AFI hose assembly has a unique number engraved on the fitting. This number tells you the exact assembly date, part number (used for repeat orders), and safe working pressure. The hose assemblies are tested on our hydrostatic test bench and are guaranteed for three years.” AFI has a 24-hour red-hot service, seven days a week with excellent service back up, onsite inspection and installation. It also provides technical advice and services for shutdown operations.
The company has a hydrostatic testing facility that can test hoses up to 87,000 PSI (6,000 Bar). All test results can be printed with a graph for reference. The facility is also capable of carrying out burst testing.
Hoses are stored as per industry standard. Stocks beyond expiry date are destroyed.  The hose division supplies the following hoses and fittings:  Ultra high pressure hoses for industrial applications; hoses for high pressure water jetting applications; stainless steel corrugated hoses suitable for a wide temperature range from -270 C to 700 C; hoses of high physical strength; fire-resistant hoses and hoses with good corrosion characteristics as well as industrial hoses, high temperature hoses and industrial hoses.
In addition to hoses and hose assemblies, AFI has a wide range of adaptors, fittings, reusable fittings, couplings, hose clamps, pipe clamps, fire sleeves and armour guard hose protections for drilling applications.
Hydraulic systems
The AFI factory has the capability to design and manufacture hydraulic systems for industrial applications. It has extensive experience in manufacturing custom-made power packs for various applications and hydraulic cylinders up to a diameter of 560 mm and a closed length of up to 9,000 mm. Hydraulic cylinders of larger dimensions can be overhauled to enable them to provide continued service.  The company also undertakes the design, manufacture, repair and supply of hydraulic test benches, hydraulic systems and flushing units for myriad industrial applications.
 
Rubber products
The AFI Rubber Factory is located in Dammam and equipped with the most sophisticated German-imported equipment. It has the capability to manufacture polyurethane rolls, cast polyurethane products, rubber rolls and mouldings, rubber and PU rolls grindings, rotors and balancing and rubber linings.
The rubber factory has a technical collaboration with Mitex, Germany, for making rubber rolls up to a diameter of 1,200 mm and length of 5,000 mm. The shore hardness is from 0~90 shore A, 60~90 shore D. All these rubber and PU products can be manufactured in various colours and in various materials such as hard (ebonite) and soft rolls.
The factory can make rubber mouldings of up to a maximum length of 850 mm and width of 685 mm. The rubber moulding techniques include rubber to metal bonding and rubber textile composites.
Rubber moulding applications include pinch valve sleeves, Saunders type diaphrams, butterfly valve seat, butterfly valve disc, slurry handling pump liners, chemical pump impellers, Chevron packings, screw pump liners, bucket seals and sealing elements
AFI Rubber Factory is capable of manufacturing rubber lining for tanks and vessels, pipes, fittings and valves. Various types of rubber linings are used such as hard rubber (NR, NR+SBR Blends) and soft rubber (NR, CR, B-Butyl, Hypalon and EPDM NR, NR). The curing types include autoclave (up to 1,500 mm diameter and 6,000 mm length) and in situ vulcanisation of any size, cold bonding using self-vulcanising foils and vulcanised sheets. All linings conform to BS: CP:30003 Part –1
A wide range of rubber lining applications can be found in desalination plants, phosphoric acid storage tanks, HCL storage tanks and chlor-alkali plants.
The factory’s staff can do the roll grinding of rubber, PU-coated metal rolls and rotors. The weight of these rollers can be up to 3,000 kg with lengths up to 5,000 mm. Metal rectification of rolls prior to rubber coating is also undertaken. Metal rectifications, roll fabrication, roll balancing and roll coating are all carried out under one roof at the factory.
AFI Rubber Factory is capable of supplying various products such castable PU products, pipeline cleaning pigs, scrappers, foam plugs, screen decks, chutes and linings (abrasion resistant)

Pump service Centre
AFI Dammam has one of best and most sophisticated pump service centres in the region. Trained engineers and technicians are qualified to dismantle, inspect and rebuild equipment using existing or replacement parts where necessary. All rebuilt units are thoroughly pressure-tested before dispatch.

AFI Mobile Equipment Division
AFI Dammam is the market leader in the installation, commissioning and servicing of truck-mounted equipment including truck-mounted cranes, wet kits for dump trucks, tailgates and other hydraulic equipment for road transport.

AFI chrome-plating plant
A hard chrome-plating plant is one of the newest additions to AFI’s manufacturing capabilities. The plant is capable of hard chrome-plating cylindrical rollers with up to 630 mm diameter and 5000 mm length.
The entire plant is operating in a safe and environmentally friendly manner in accordance with ISO standards.

Industrial equipment supplies
The company is also a leading supplier of industrial equipment in the Middle East.  The trading division focuses on the sourcing of industrial goods for a myriad industrial market sectors such as hydraulics, pneumatics, instrumentation, transportation, construction and safety and security.

Customer sales and service support
“AFI’s customer service sets the company apart from most industrial equipment providers. A team of experienced application engineers works to provide customers with products and services best suited for their applications,” says Joseph.
AFI has an extensive network of branches in Saudi Arabia. These are located in Riyadh, Jeddah, Yanbu, Jubail, Qassim, Hofuf, Khodariya, Tabuk and Abha, providing products and services all through the kingdom. As a commitment towards Middle East support, AFI has well-established branches in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Sudan, Iraq, Dubai and the US.