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Pump Industry Analyst February 1998

QUIET PLEASE! UK employers who buy or lease machinery for use at work are being advised to keep the noise down by gov- ernment Environment minis- ter Angela Eagle.

A free leaflet, Keep the noise down. t Advice for pur- chasers of noisy machinery, has been published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The leaflet offers guid- ance on the benefits of buying or leasing quieter machinery, the legal duties relating to noise and workplace machin- ery, the information on noise that should be available when buying or leasing machinery and the.benefits of introducing a company purchasing policy to reduce noise levels. The leaflet supports the HSE's Good Health is Good Business campaign which aims to per- suade employers that they can take simple steps to manage health risks effectively.

For a free copy of the leaflet, contact HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk C O l 0 6FS, UK. Tel: +44 1787 881165; Fax: +44 1787 313995.

DANA TO CONSOLIDATE

GRESEN MANUFACTURING

OPERATIONS As part of its continuing efforts to improve efficiency and reduce costs, Dana Corporation's Gresen Hy- draulics Division is to consol- idate its Greenville, South Carolina pump facility with its Sarasota, Florida location.

Ray Frederick, vice presi- dent and general manager of the Gresen Hydraulics Div- ision, said: "The decision to close the Greenville facility was very difficult. However, it is necessary to support our integration of the pump and valve products for better asset utilisation, cost control, and customer service."

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The Greenville plant man- ufactures hydraulic pumps and motors primarily for the con- struction equipment, refuse and dump truck, and off-high- way markets. The Sarasota location currently supplies pump components to Green- ville, along with a variety of accessory valves and cartridges for use in the fluid power industry. It is an ISO 9001-cer- tified facility with a proven record of quality and perfor- mance. The consolidation is expected to be complete in late 1998. An after-tax charge of US$2 million associated with the consolidation was recog- nised during the lburth quarter of 1997.

WILD SALMSON PLANS NEW UK

HQ Wild Salmson Pumps Ltd has announced plans to move into a new £1 million UK headquarters, in Burton-on- Trent.

Construction work will begin on the new premises in October this year, with com- pletion scheduled for mid 1999. Wild Salmson currently has an integrated office and warehouse on Derby's West Meadows Industrial Estate which has been the company's UK base for the past 15 years. The move will provide a 45 per cent increase in space to 22 300 sq ft. New jobs are antici- pated as a result of plans to step up assembly, servicing and repairs. Howard Davis, managing director, said they believed the move will play a key role in plans to double cur- rent turnover to £15 million by the turn of the century.

SEEPEX SHIPS 100 000TH PUMP

Seepex Seeberger GmbH + Co of Bottrop, Germany has manufactured and shipped its 100 000th pump.

The model 130-6L pump, with a capacity of 130 m 3 at

pressures up to 6 bar, was shipped to a Belgian customer. In June last year, the company celebrated its 25th anniversary. Seepex products are distributed by subsidiaries in France, the UK, Denmark, Austria, the USA, Canada and Malaysia. Additionally, the company maintains branch offices, rep- resentatives and agents in more than 40 other countries.

PEERLESS AND LABOUR ADOPT

STERLING NAME Peerless Pump Company and Labour Pumps of Indianapolis have changed their names to Sterling Fluid Systems Inc.

The change was made to identify the companies as members of the Sterling Fluid Systems Group, which has annual sales in excess of US$600 million. Operating divisions of the Sterling Fluid Systems Group include Sterling Americas, Sterling Europe, and Sterling Asia.

WEIR IN PROCESS EQUIPMENT DISPOSALS

Weir Engineering Pty Ltd (Australia) and Weir-Enviro- Tech Pty Ltd (South Africa), subsidiaries of The Weir Group pie, have sold their process equipment businesses to subsidiaries of Baker Hughes Incorporated for a cash consideration of app- roximately US$17 million.

The consideration will be adjusted depending on the final value of working capital con- tained in the balance sheets as at 20 January 1998. The busi- nesses were based on licences granted by the EIMCO Process Equipment Company, a Baker Hughes company, and the transaction will bring these licence arrangements to an end. Proceeds from the sale will be used for the general development of The Weir Group. The approximate value of the net assets being sold is

US$4.9 million and operating profits in the year to 26 December 1997 were approxi- mately US$3.48 million.

ROBBINS & MYERS IN UK

DISTRIBUTION DEAL

CCD Pumps, a London, UK- based pump distributor and manufacturer of pumping sets, has expanded its prod- uct range following an agree- ment with the UK subsidiary of Robbins & Myers.

The agreement covers a series of progressing cavity pumps for applications in the water, food, pharmaceutical, chemical and other process industries.

TIMKEN PLANS NEW RECYCLING

FACILITY Bearing giant The Timken Company has entered a ten- tative agreement with Phoenix Environmental Ltd to devel- op a byproduct processing facility near Timken's Fair- crest Steel Plant in Canton, Ohio, USA.

The facility will employ a newly patented process to con- vert byproducts of the steel and bearing manufacturing process to industrial raw materials. "This recycling technology breakthrough will greatly min- imize our need for byproduct disposal and pioneer an alter- native waste disposal system for the industry," said Karl Kimmerling, group vice presi- dent - alloy steel. The opera- tion will convert byproduct of the manufacturing process, such as electric arc furnace dust, metal grindings, and scale from the pickling process, to magnetite, which is a form of iron oxide. This fully recyclable magnetite can be sold as a raw material to indus- trial manufacturers of blasting media, shingle granules, pig- ments and colorants for paint and concrete, and filler addi- tives for plastics.