Supplier News

J&L Fiber Services, Waukesha, Wis., has been acquired by Precision Castparts Corp. of Portland, Ore., a manufacturer of complex metal components and products. J&L, a supplier of refiner fillings, screen cylinders, cleaner cones, and other products, has been a division of Beloit for five years. It plans to continue its partnering relationship with Beloit MillPro Services after the acquisition.

Albany International Corp., a supplier of paper machine clothing and industrial doors headquartered in Albany, N.Y., has completed several acquisitions. These include M&I Door Systems Ltd., a door manufacturing company in Barrie, Ont.; Burwell Door Systems, an Albany International door distributor located in Sydney, Australia; and Techniweave Inc., a fabricator of high-performance textiles and composites located in Rochester, N.H. Albany International also purchased 50% of SARA (Loading Bay Specialists Ltd.), a long-term distributor of Albany International’s Schieffer Door Systems in the U.K. To strengthen its core paper machine clothing business in the Nordic region, Albany International purchased Metco Form Oy, a Finnish supplier of forming and other fabrics located near Helsinki, Finland.

Greif Bros. Corp., a manufacturer of industrial packaging and components such as steel drums, plastic drums, and multi-wall bags, has completed its acquisition of Sonoco Products Co. Greif has also agreed to acquire Sonoco’s intermediate container business. This business includes 12 fiber drum plants and five plastic drum plants, along with facilities for research and development, packaging services, and distribution.

Fisher-Rosemount’s parent company, Emerson Electric, has acquired PC&E, a process automation consulting and electrical engineering business.

Harding Lawson Assoc. Group Inc., a provider of environmental and infrastructure consulting, engineering, and construction services, has agreed to acquire 100% of ABB Environmental Services, a unit of ABB Inc.

Harnischfeger Industries, the parent company of Beloit Corp., has sold 80% of the common stock of its P&H Material Handling unit to Chartwell Investments, a private investment firm based in New York City. P&H supplies through-the-air cranes, hoists, and dock-side cranes for industrial settings.

Motion Industries, a Birmingham, Ala.-based distributor of bearings, mechanical and fluid power transmission equipment, and hose products, has acquired Cascade Bearing and Hydraulics, with locations in Yakima and Pasco, Wash. These two locations will become part of Motion’s western division.

J.M. Clipper Corp., a manufacturer of sealing and gasketing products, has acquired Leader Gasket of Baton Rouge, La., including operations in Houston. Texas, and Europe. Leader Gasket manufactures a line of spiral-wound and related metallic gaskets.

Danaher Corp., a manufacturer of tools, components, and process/environmental controls, has acquired Pacific Scientific, a manufacturer of motion control, process control, and safety equipment.

MG Industries, a producer of industrial gas, has announced plans to acquire two air separation plants from AGA Gas Co. The plants are located in Irwindale and Vacaville, Calif. Both plants produce oxygen, nitrogen, and argon.

Prime Service Inc., an industrial equipment rental service, has acquired J&P Rentals & Sales Inc., a privately-held equipment rental company with locations in Eugene, Springfield, and Lake Oswego, Ore.

DuPont and Noranda Inc. have signed an agreement to form Noranda DuPont LLC, a 50/50 joint venture to market, transport, and distribute sulfuric acid in North America. Under the agreement, the joint venture company will purchase and resell all the North American output of the sulfuric acid operations of DuPont, Noranda Inc., and Noranda’s affiliate, Falconbridge Ltd.

Deloitte & Touche LLP, a professional services firm, and Ross Systems Inc., a supplier of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to process manufacturing industries, have announced a strategic alliance. This arrangement brings together Deloitte & Touche’s ERP implementation experience with Ross’s Renaissance CS ERP to provide improvement opportunities for process manufacturers.

OSI Software Inc., San Leandro, Calif., and Intellution Inc., Norwood, Mass., have agreed that Intellution will incorporate OSI’s PI System into FIX Dynamics. Intellution’s FIX Dynamics, a component object solution for manufacturing, will embed the PI System, a historical database and plantwide monitoring system, in order to enable a plant historical database to be displayed at the operator level.

Honeywell Inc. and Flowserve Corp. have announced a global strategic business alliance designed to merge automation technology with flow control technology. The alliance teams Honeywell Industrial Automation and Control with Flowserve’s Flow Control Div. and its line of Valtek control valve products to provide reliability management and process control solutions to process industries.

Honeywell’s Micro Switch Div. and Think & Do Software have announced the availability of Think & Do software for use with Honeywell’s Smart Distributed System. The Think & Do driver combines network management, Smart Distributed System bus configuration, and PC-control I/O configuration to reduce control program development and system startup time.

National Seal Co. (NSC) and its subsidiary, Fluid Systems (FSI), have announced an agreement with Hydrotex Synthetics Inc. of Atlanta, Ga., whereby NSC/FSI becomes the exclusive distributor for Hydrotex fabric-formed concrete systems in the U.S. environmental containment market.

Scientific Plastics Co. Inc., Waukesha, Wis., and Broen Lab div. of Broen A/S in Assens, Denmark, have announced a strategic alliance to market each other’s products in the U.S. and Europe. Under the agreement, Scientific Plastics will become the sole U.S. distributor of Broen Lab’s line of laboratory fixtures.

AapexX Corp., Hot Springs, Ark., has been designated the exclusive North American representative for MTC, Lucca, Italy. MTC designs and manufactures machinery for the tissue converting industry.

Thermo Black Clawson has named Thermo Wisconsin Inc., Kaukauna, Wis., as its authorized service center for mills in Michigan’s upper peninsula, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. In addition, Thermo Black Clawson has named Chalmers & Kubeck Inc., Aston, Pa., as its authorized service center for Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

Coors Ceramics Co., a manufacturer of advanced technical ceramics, has announced a supply agreement with Ecolochem Inc., a specialist in outsourced water treatment systems, to develop and promote the use of its CeramicA filters in outsourced water treatment. The two companies will work together to employ the Coors Ceramics technology in water treatment and water reuse applications. Ecolochem will undertake exclusive worldwide marketing for supplying CeramicA filters.

Beloit Corp. plans to install a new pilot tissue machine at its Rockton, Ill., research and development center. The machine will have a pondside width of one meter and a design speed of 3,050 m/min. Scheduled for startup in mid-1999, this machine will include equipment such as a Concept IV-MH headbox, C-Wrap former, 5-m Beloit Fleissner Through-Air dryer, 5.5-m Yankee Dryer with pressure roll, and level rail reel. A calender will be installed at a later date.

Motion Industries, a distributor of bearings, mechanical/fluid power transmission equipment, and hose products, has opened new branches in Fort Collins, Colo.; Newark, Del.; and Albany, N.Y.

Bandit Industries, a manufacturer of chipping and recycling equipment, has expanded to cover more than 160,000 ft². A 5,000-ft² facility is currently under construction; it will be operational by spring.

Chemineer Inc., a supplier of mixing technology, has established a rapid response center in Dayton, Ohio. The center houses a team of service engineers and machinists that can quickly manufacture Chemineer and Prochem parts.

ASAP Inc., a provider of open architecture, integrated control solutions has opened two new facilities: a sales headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich., and a Northeast regional office in Portland, Conn.

Environmental Resources Management, an environmental, health, and safety firm, has opened three new offices in Columbus, Ga., and Beaufort and Columbia, S.C.

HydroChem Industrial Services, a supplier of specialized cleaning services, has broken ground for its new headquarters in Deer Park, Texas. The almost 20-acre site will house over 200 employees and consolidate five locations.

Laminations, a manufacturer of laminated paper products for industrial shipping, packaging, and warehousing, has opened a stocking hub in Denver, Colo.

General Alum & Chemical’s Searsport, Maine, facility has been awarded ISO 9002 certification for the manufacture and distribution of aluminum sulfate, sodium aluminate, sulfuric acid, and aqua ammonia.

LignoTech USA Inc., a Rothschild, Wis.-based producer of lignin-based chemicals, has received ISO 9001 certification.

AGA Gas Inc.’s air separation plants in Madison, Wis., and Canton, Ohio, along with its Waukesha, Wis., technical service operation, have received ISO 9002 certification.

Rohm and Haas Co. has begun construction of a new plant in Map Ta Phut, Thailand. This facility will make products for processing markets and will serve customers in Southeast Asia.

Praxair Inc., a supplier of carbon dioxide, has started up a new carbon dioxide production facility in Chatham, Ont. The plant produces up to 325 mtpd of carbon dioxide for use by its customers in Ontario, Quebec, and the eastern U.S.

KRC Rolls, a Scapa Group company, has forged a closer alliance with its sister company in Europe—Scapa-Kern—and announced a name change of both subsidiaries to Scapa Rolls.

The Diversified Berdell Group Inc., a supplier of heat transfer products and services, has changed its name to Diversified Heat Transfer Inc.

Leica Microscopy and Scientific Instruments Group, formerly a part of the Leica Group, has become legally independent. The name of the new group, which produces solutions for vision and analysis of microstructures, is Leica Microsystems.