Supplier News

Groupe Laperriere & Verreault Inc. (GL&V), a manufacturer of engineered proprietary equipment for the pulp and paper industry and a supplier of turnkey construction engineering services, and Valmet Corp. have reached an agreement whereby Valmet will sell certain businesses and assets located at its Hudson Falls, N.Y., facility. GL&V, through its subsidiary, GL&V/Black Clawson-Kennedy Pulp and Paper Machine Group USA Ltd., Watertown, N.Y., will purchase the dryer production, foundry, and Sandy Hill's spare parts business. Valmet will retain its roll shop in Fort Edward, N.Y. In addition, Valmet will retain existing sales and service representatives in Hudson Falls, as well as other service activities. With the acquisition, GL&V hopes to raise its profile in the U.S.

Neptune Chemical Pump Co., a manufacturer of chemical metering pumps, mixers, chemical feed systems, and water treatment products, has acquired the Polymaster ET automatic polymer blending system from Komax Systems Inc., Wilmington, Calif. Komax manufactures static mixers and steam injection heaters.

Carbonair Environmental Systems Inc., New Brighton, Minn., has acquired the Environmental Division of U.S. Filter/Geopure. Carbonair manufactures remediation equipment, while the Florida-based U.S. Filter/Geopure supplies and sells equipment for the water and soil remediation markets. Equipment and systems have been consolidated at Carbonair's new facility in Minneapolis, Minn., and a service division has been formed with four U.S. locations in Minneapolis, Minn., Gainesville, Fla., Salem, Va., and San Marcos, Texas. With the acquisition, Carbonair hopes to enhance its ability to provide turnkey remediation systems.

SSC Industries of Atlanta, Ga., has signed a letter of intent with Nottingham Chemical Co., also of Atlanta, whereby SSC will acquire the pulp and paper chemicals business of Nottingham. Under the letter's terms, Nottingham will totally exit the pulp and paper chemicals business and SSC will acquire Nottingham's customer list, formulae, and technology.

Sequa Corp., a diversified technology company, has completed the purchase of TEC Systems, a manufacturer of dryers and environmental control equipment, from W.R. Grace & Co. TEC will be combined with Materiels Equipements Graphiques (MEG), a French-based unit of Sequa, to form MEGTEC Systems.

GE Capital Services, a financial services company, has agreed to purchase Cargowaggon, a pan-European railcar and rail transport company, from Brambles Industries Ltd. and Danzas Holding AG. Cargowaggon will retain its name and will become part of GE Capital's Railcar Services business headquartered in Chicago, Ill.

MST Analytics Inc. recently completed the acquisition of four operating companies. These include MST Measurement Systems and FPM Analytics Inc. of Wheeling, Ill.; MST Microsensor Technologie GmbH of Munich Germany; and Sensoric GmbH of Bonn, Germany. MST Measurement Systems and MST Microsensor Technologie are suppliers of advanced gas detection systems, while Sensoric GmbH manufactures electrochemical sensors and FPM Analytics develops liquid process analyzers. The four companies have been rolled into a single holding company: MST Analytics Inc.

WEDECO Environmental Technologies GmbH, a designer and builder of ozone equipment and systems headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, has contracted to purchase the ozone operations of PCI Inc. of West Caldwell, N.J.

South West Water Plc (ELE Group Ltd.) has completed the acquisition of Hydrolab Corp., a Texas-based company. Hydrolab manufactures in situ multi-parameter, water quality monitoring instruments. This acquisition continues South West Water's strategy of assembling a core of companies specializing in international water instrumentation.

Grinnell, a subsidiary of Tyco International Ltd., has merged with Keystone International Inc. Keystone designs and manufactures industrial valves, actuators, and accessories used for control flow of liquids, gases, and solid materials. Grinnell also offers a line of valves, actuators, and other devices.

National Starch and Chemical Co. will sell the waxy seed business of its Custom Farm Seed Div. to Dekalb Genetics Corp. National also entered into a joint research and development agreement with Dekalb to develop certain maize hybrids with improved starch functionality and to improve existing hybrids used in National's starch business.

PRICE INCREASES

Tioxide Americas Inc. announced that it will increase prices for U.S. customers by US$0.03/lb for Tioxide rutile titanium dioxide grades, and by US$0.04 for Tioxide anatase titanium dioxide grades. For Canadian customers, the company will increase prices by C$0.05/lb for Tioxide rutile titanium dioxide grades, and by C$0.06 for Tioxide anatase titanium dioxide grades.

EXPANSIONS/MODERNIZATIONS

Due to significant increases in sales volume, the Lawton Co., DePere, Wis., has expanded its Pattern Shop Div., adding floor space, personnel, and new equipment to meet customer demands. The Pattern Shop expansion includes an additional 8,000 ft2 of production area, new storage facilities, and the installation of a new lathe capable of turning patterns up to 140 in. New computer systems, including Pro-E pattern modeling software, enables the Pattern Shop to translate customers' CAD files into sectional images suitable for pattern production.

Cattron Group Inc., a manufacturer of portable remote control systems, has formed a subsidiary to serve African
industrial markets. The company, Cattron Africa (Pty.) Ltd., will provide technical support for the Cattron line of portable remote control (PRC) products.

Environmental Resources Management (ERM), an environmental, health, and safety consulting firm, has opened new offices in Shanghai and Guanzhou, expanding its presence in China to three offices. ERM opened its first Chinese office in Beijing in 1994.

REORGANIZATIONS

Valmet has announced plans to create a large converting group. In July 1997, Valmet acquired Atlas Converting Equipment plc, with subsidiaries in England. Beginning in 1998, Valmet will consolidate Atlas operations with the current converting operations of the Italian-based companies Rotomec and MAF, which are already part of Valmet. The new entity will have total annual net sales of approximately $240 million and will employ close to 1,000 people. The move is designed to complement Valmet's existing paper machinery business.

Honeywell-Measurex has announced changes to its manufacturing organization for the Cupertino, Calif., plant. Taking advantage of global supply and distribution models used by Honeywell Inc., its parent company, Honeywell-Measurex will consolidate its current delivery system into regional delivery centers. Products from various manufacturing plants will now be integrated, customized, and delivered to customers regionally.

The local strategy includes phasing out and moving printed circuit board and cabinet chassis manufacturing from Cupertino to Honeywell's York, Pa., and Phoenix, Ariz., facilities. Other assembly procedures will be outsourced locally. These changes will affect approximately 58 permanent and 12 temporary jobs at the Cupertino facility.

GE Fanuc, a supplier of industrial controls, has reorganized internally to better meet the specific requirements of key worldwide vertical markets with products, services, and support. Initially, the focus will be on monitoring and control solutions for substation automation, semiconductor manufacturing, metal manufacturing, water and wastewater facilities, and critical control applications. GE Fanuc expects to later add other target markets.

LITIGATION

The U.S. district court for the northern district of Texas has found that Hawk America infringed upon Milltronics Ltd.'s U.S. "Acoustic Ranging System" patent. As part of a settlement, Hawk America has admitted patent infringement and has agreed to pay Milltronics a cash settlement. The unauthorized use of intellectual property embodied in the patent was found to have been present in the development of the Hawk America product known as Rangemaster.

NEW COMPANIES

UNOVA Inc. is the name of the new public company comprising the technologies businesses of Western Atlas Inc. UNOVA's activities are made up of the automated data collection (ADC)/ mobile computing operations of Intermec, Norand, and UBI, which have been combined into one entity.

RELOCATIONS

Heavy Machines Inc., a machinery distributor in forest products and other industries, has moved to a new corporate office in Memphis, Tenn. Still in Airport Industrial Park, the new office/warehouse facility is at 3926 E. Raines Rd. The new phone number is (901) 260-2200.

To meet growing market demands, Ozonia North America Inc., Richmond, Va., has announced the consolidation of its Richmond, Va., and Lodi, N.J., offices to a new location in Elmwood Park, N.J. Ozonia manufactures ozone generators and systems for various applications, including water and wastewater treatment and chemical oxidation. Its new address will be 491 Edward H. Ross Dr., P.O. Box 455, Elmwood Park, N.J., 07407. The new phone number is (201) 794-3100.

NAME CHANGES

CST/AutoWeigh, a company formed as a result of the 1993 merger between CST and AutoWeigh, has changed its name to AutoWeigh. The firm manufactures weigh belt feeders, conveyor belt scales, process controllers, and other products. It also markets ancillary products such as control gates and speed sensors. Concurrent with the name change, they have strengthened customer service, manufacturing, and other support operations.

AWARDS

Thomson Industries, a manufacturer of ball-screw actuators, was awarded the General Motors 1996 Supplier of the Year Award. This is the second year in a row that Thomson has received this award.

Nooter Corp., St. Louis, Mo., a manufacturer of pressure vessels and related equipment, is the first manufacturer to have received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Section VII, Div. 3 stamp accreditation, which was introduced in May of 1997. This accreditation was designed by the ASME for vessels with pressures of more than 10,000 psi. The code uses a lower safety factor on the allowable stress used to design vessels than is used for other ASME pressure vessel codes, but uses additional nondestructive testing, inspection, and design requirements.