Company Briefs: Flexicon opens Jakarta location, Wynright to expand
Acquisitions, Expansions & Partnerships
Flexicon opens Jakarta location
Flexicon Singapore has opened a new office in Jakarta, Indonesia, to provide factory-direct sales and applications engineering services throughout Southeast Asia. The new location will be headed by Irwan Gunawan, regional sales manager, who holds a degree in mechatronic engineering from the Swiss German University of Indonesia and has served in various technical engineering positions since 2010, in the food packaging, automation and petrochemical industries.
Gunawan will be responsible for building relationships with plant managers, engineers and other decision-makers in facilities that handle bulk solid materials across the food, pharmaceutical, mineral and general chemical industries.
Wynright to expand, consolidate manufacturing facilities
Wynright Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Daifuku North America, will expand its North American U.S. manufacturing capabilities in the Greater Chicago area by consolidating its existing factories in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and Oak Lawn, Illinois into a new, larger facility in Hobart, Indiana, in phases, by the end of 2019.
In line with the completion of the new factory, the existing factories in Elk Grove and Oak Lawn will close. Daifuku Wynright has offered all employees at both sites the opportunity to continue with the company at the new facility.
Wynright Corporation provides intelligent material handling systems. The company designs, manufactures, integrates and installs a full spectrum of intralogistics solutions, offering both Wynright-branded and third-party equipment. These include conveyor and sortation systems, voice- and light-directed order fulfillment equipment, a suite of warehouse controls and execution software as well as robotics and automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS).
TrendMiner and Process Automation Solutions partner to accelerate customers’ digital transformation
TrendMiner has signed a partnership agreement with Process Automation Solutions, a provider of automation solutions for the process and manufacturing industry. As a services partner of TrendMiner, PA Solutions will expand the service offering for TrendMiner’s advanced analytics capabilities to the process industry in northwestern Europe.
TrendMiner breaks down data silos and enables data from multiple sources and different natures to be used for analysis. PA Solutions integrates with TrendMiner’s advanced analytics solution into customers’ existing IT landscapes and uses all relevant information for process performance analysis.
ROSS’ new facility in China. Image courtesy of ROSS.
ROSS plant expansion in Nantong, China
ROSS has completed an expansion of its facility in Nantong, China. After more than 20 years of a successful joint venture, Nantong Ross Mixing Equipment has pushed ROSS to become the world’s largest supplier of ribbon blenders in China. Nantong ROSS also produces high shear mixers, vertical blenders and other product lines for the Chinese market.
SPX FLOW establishes new bolting systems calibration center in Ghana
SPX FLOW has established a new West Africa Calibration Center at an existing Bosch Rexroth facility in Takoradi, Ghana. The new center will provide local calibration and service for SPX FLOW Bolting Systems technologies.
West Africa is an established region for the mining of minerals and oil and gas exploration and production. SPX FLOW supplies controlled bolting solutions in the area with the support of local distributor Power Team South Africa. The new calibration center is intended to offer enhanced local support to customers in West Africa.
Catalent breaks ground at $112M drug product manufacturing facility
Catalent held a ground-breaking ceremony at its Bloomington, Indiana site to mark the start of construction on a $112 million drug product manufacturing facility, which will increase fill capacity in Bloomington by 79,000 square feet. The facility will house a high-speed vial line, using both ready-to-use components and bulk filling; a high-speed flexible syringe/cartridge line; a fully automated vial inspection machine; and all associated services and support areas. Catalent Biologics plans to create up to 200 new jobs to support the increased production and completion of both construction and recruitment are expected by the end of 2024.
Gelest acquires Bimax
Gelest Inc. has acquired Bimax, a manufacturer and marketer of specialty monomers and polymers for use in the manufacture of contact lenses, intraocular lenses, personal care products, coatings and adhesives and other advanced technology applications.
Bimax will continue to operate under the Bimax name, and all employees will be retained in their current roles.
Gelest Inc. is a manufacturer, and supplier of silicones, organosilanes and metal-organics for advanced technology end markets including medical device, life sciences, microelectronics and personal care.
AspenTech acquires Mnubo, Sabisu
AspenTech, a provider of asset optimization software, has signed an agreement to acquire Mnubo Inc., a Montreal-based provider of purpose-built artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics infrastructure for the internet of things (IoT). Mnubo enables industrial companies to assemble and deploy AI-driven IoT applications quickly, at enterprise scale. The Mnubo technology will accelerate the realization of AspenTech’s vision for the next generation of asset optimization solutions that combine deep process expertise with AI and machine learning.
AspenTech also has acquired Sabisu, a UK-based company that provides a flexible enterprise visualization and workflow solution to deliver real-time decision support. AspenTech acquired Sabisu in June 2019.
These acquisitions will enable AspenTech to accelerate the distribution of embedded AI in both its existing and future solutions. By combining first principle engineering models and deep process expertise with AI capabilities, these solutions will enable the automation of knowledge and data-driven decision-making for continuous improvement across the design, operation and maintenance life cycle of industrial assets.
C&B Equipment acquires Douglas Pump Service Inc.
Industrial and municipal equipment distribution and service company C&B Equipment has purchased the stock of Douglas Pump Service Inc., resulting in an ownership change with C&B becoming the owner of Douglas Pump Service Inc. The new official name is C&B Equipment Midwest Inc. DBA Douglas Pump Service Inc. C&B Equipment has retained all staff and employees and intends to move its current Lenexa location to Douglas Pump Service Inc.’s 17,000-square-foot service facility in Overland Park.
Wichita-based C&B Equipment can now offer localized service and a repair facility in the Kansas City market. Douglas Pump Service Inc. customers will now have access to engineering, new applications and new pump packages and solutions.
C&B Equipment is an industrial and municipal equipment distribution and service company for pumps, mechanical seals, air compressors, blowers, gas and diesel engines, and related equipment.
Readco Kurimoto unveils rental program
Process equipment manufacturer Readco Kurimoto has unveiled a rental program offering its continuous processors for short-term usage. Available as a month-to-month lease, the Readco rental program enables food, chemical, plastics and other processors to test the continuous processor in actual operating conditions on-site, validate the process, and document how upgrading from batch processing to continuous processing impacts their operations. The rental program also enables some processors purchasing new machines to begin continuous operations while their custom machines are being manufactured.
A rendering of Applied Motion Products’ new corporate headquarters. Image courtesy of Applied Motion Products.
Applied Motion Products buys land in Silicon Valley to construct new corporate headquarters for US operations
Motion control and automation solutions provider Applied Motion Products has purchased land to build its new corporate headquarters in Morgan Hill, California at the southern tip of Silicon Valley.
The new headquarters will consolidate all U.S. operations, now conducted in two separate buildings located in Watsonville, California, including production, warehouse, operations, engineering, customer service and executive management in one location for greater efficiencies among the departments. The larger facility will accommodate growth in the design and manufacture of motion control products including step motors, servo motors, drives and controls to meet growing demand while developing new innovations for different industries.
Applied Motion Products expects to break ground on phase one of its new headquarters in November 2019, with construction completion anticipated for December 2020.
MFG Chemical upgrading Georgia manufacturing plants
MFG Chemical, a provider of specialty and custom chemical manufacturing, will upgrade all three of its Dalton, Georgia manufacturing plants.
This upgrade, named Project Odyssey, will improve management systems related to process safety and key compliance workflows. It will also increase plant capacity and efficiency to meet increased demand coming from specialty chemical markets, including agriculture, asphalt, paints and coatings, graphic arts, lubricants, mining, personal care, soap and detergents, pulp and paper and water treatment.
Improvements will include new cooling towers, new process control technology, upgraded reactor piping for improved pressure relief and new safety instrumented systems.
Nuberg EPC signs contract to deliver Chlor-Alkali Plant in Morocco
Global EPC and turnkey management company Nuberg EPC has been selected by SCE Chemicals, Morocco as the EPC lump-sum contractor to establish a new Chlor-Alkali plant. The plant will produce caustic soda, hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite chlorine.
The new production line will be established in El-Jadida, Morocco and is due for completion in late 2020.
SCE is an industrial company operating in the fields of chemistry and agriculture. It produces and markets products such as sulfonic acid, sodium silicate, SLES and aluminium sulfate. The specialized areas of SCE are the detergent and cosmetics, the water treatment and the timber industry. Chlorine and caustic soda are important raw materials for pharmaceutical products.
Yokogawa to establish open process automation test bed for ExxonMobil
Yokogawa Electric has been selected by ExxonMobil to be the open process automation (OPA) system integrator responsible for establishing the company’s OPA test bed. Development work and experiments conducted on the test bed will support ExxonMobil’s effort to move toward a standards-based, open, secure and interoperable process control architecture. ExxonMobil will use the test bed to evaluate candidate components and standards and provide the basis for moving OPA technology into initial industrial field trials. Yokogawa’s development office for the test bed will be located near ExxonMobil’s Houston Campus in Spring, Texas, and the initial stage is planned to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2019.
One Rock Capital acquires Engineered Components and Systems from Actuant Corporation
An affiliate of One Rock Capital Partners will acquire the Engineered Components & Systems segment of Actuant Corporation. The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2019.
Headquartered in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, Engineered Components & Systems is a global company serving the agriculture, specialty and commercial vehicle, construction and other industrial end-markets with motion, actuation and control solutions. The company primarily serves on and off-highway OEMs with highly engineered system-critical motion, actuation and control solutions under brands that include CrossControl, Maximatecc, Elliott Manufacturing, Gits Manufacturing, Power-Packer and Weasler Engineering. The company has 13 manufacturing facilities and six engineering centers, with approximately 190 engineers in multiple geographies.
