Movers & Shakers: Grundfos breaks ground, Rockwell Automation appoints CEO

May 23, 2016

Expected to be completed during the fall of 2017, the new LEED-certified design facility will replace its current Kansas City offices and continue to house its customer service, technical training, marketing, business development and other support functions for the Americas region and USA Sales.

Acquisitions, expansions & partnerships

Grundfos’ new office
Global pump manufacturer Grundfos broke ground on a new 40,000-square-foot office building in Lenexa, Kansas, during an April 12 ceremony. Expected to be completed during the fall of 2017, the new LEED-certified design facility will replace its current Kansas City offices and continue to house its customer service, technical training, marketing, business development and other support functions for the Americas region and USA Sales.

Solenis- Lostris International
Solenis LLC acquired Lostris International B.V. and Wester Blend B.V., a Dutch seller and manufacturer of specialty chemicals primarily used in the pulp and paper industry. The businesses will be integrated into Solenis to broaden its process chemicals offering and expand its geographic presence.

Schneider Packaging training laboratory
Schneider Packaging Equipment Co., a manufacturer of end-of-line solutions for case packing, sealing and palletizing, has built a training laboratory at its headquarters in upstate New York. The lab provides customers the opportunity to train on equipment in a controlled environment. Through hands-on training, customers are able to learn specific technical skills without slowing or stopping their production lines, which helps lower the learning curve once the new system is in place. Training can be scheduled by contacting Rick Buffham at 315-676-3035 ext. 469 or at [email protected].

Viega headquarters move
Viega LLC will move its North American headquarters to Broomfield, Colorado. There it will build a headquarters and educational training facility, with the move scheduled to be completed by the end of 2017. The location was chosen to make its corporate staff more accessible to customers and partners throughout the country. It has a central manufacturing and distribution center in McPherson, Kansas, as well as distribution centers in Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and another educational training facility in New Hampshire. The company was headquartered in Wichita for 10 years.

Labworks- LABWORKS LIMS
Labworks LLC, which offers solutions for Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), acquired the LABWORKS LIMS product line from PerkinElmer Health Sciences. The line is comprised of seasoned software executives and many previous PerkinElmer/LABWORKS employees. The company’s new management team includes Paul Fjeldsted as the CTO and Lane Franks as the CEO. Labworks has already created new features for its LABWORKS solution with its next release, v6.6, scheduled for early summer.

Wright Technical Marketing- Conoflow Series
WTM Valves & Services (a.k.a. Wright Technical Marketing LLC) acquired of the Conoflow GP50/P50 Series pneumatic valve positioner product line from ITT Enidine Inc. The line will now be manufactured by WTM in its Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, facility and marketed under the WTM brand, but it will retain the Conoflow design and model numbering system.

Zenith Technologies-Werum IT Solutions
Zenith Technologies and Werum IT Solutions have formed a global partnership to support pharmaceutical companies with the implementation of manufacturing execution system (MES) technology. The collaboration brings together Werum IT Solution’s MES PAS-X software, which is designed to increase efficiency, improve productivity and meet regulatory requirements during pharmaceutical manufacturing, with Zenith Technologies’ ability to integrate systems and provide on-the-ground automation technical support.

Allergan facility expansion
Pharmaceutical company Allergan plc broke ground on a $200 million expansion of its Waco, Texas, facility. The expansion will add 322,000 square feet of manufacturing space to the current facility, nearly doubling its current footprint. The expansion will add a new raw material dispensary, an automated bulk formulation suite and 10 production lines as well as warehousing space.

EnPro Industries-Rubber Fab Gasket & Molding
EnPro Industries Inc., a manufacturer of engineered industrial products, acquired the assets of Rubber Fab Gasket & Molding Inc., a privately held company offering a range of sanitary gaskets, hoses and fittings for the hygienic process industries. Rubber Fab will become part of EnPro’s Garlock Family of Companies, a global supplier of sealing and fluid handling products to the chemical, power generation, and oil and gas markets.

Rolf A. Sonderegger, CEO of Kistler Group; Dr. Volker Schatz, managing director of Schatz AG; and Martin Schatz, managing director of Schatz USA Inc. Courtesy of Kistler.

Kistler-Schatz AG
Kistler has taken over Schatz AG in Remscheid, Germany, and its U.S. sales and service company, Schatz USA Inc., which is based in Holly, Michigan. This acquisition gives the Kistler Group new potential applications in quality assurance in industrial manufacturing. The Schatz Group develops, manufactures, and distributes laboratory systems for the analysis of screw connections, calibration equipment and test systems for torque tools, and portable measurement systems for random sample testing.

Appointments

Bunting Magnetics Co. COO
Bunting Magnetics Co. promoted Jana Davis to chief operating officer, a new position within the company. Jana joined the company in 2011 as Chief Financial Officer. Davis, who previously served as chief financial officer will continue to report to Bob Bunting, president & CEO. The company also appointed Kevin Bowen to the its Advisory Board. The board meets quarterly to provide insight on the metal company’s strategic growth plan and initiatives.

Brennan Industries executives
Brennan Industries Inc., an international supplier of hydraulic fittings and adapters, promoted three executives. Previous vice president of operations and marketing Bill Jarrell is now executive vice president, and previous vice president of sales Brad Rico is now executive vice president. Jarrell has been with Brennan Industries for 15 years and Rico 12 years. Pat DeCapua was also promoted from general manager of corporate to vice president of corporate and manufacturing.

Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging president
Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging has appointed Steve Meeker as president. He previously served as chief operating officer and has held senior leadership roles at Bayer Healthcare, Sanofi and Marion Merrell Dow The company is a contract packager that serves the global pharmaceutical industry with bottling, blistering, pouching, unit-of-use, compliance and secondary packaging services.

Rockwell Automation CEO
Rockwell Automation’s board of directors elected Blake D. Moret, a 30-year veteran of the company, as president and chief executive officer, effective July 1. Keith D. Nosbusch, who has been president and chief executive officer since 2004, will will continue as chairman of the board. Moret is currently senior vice president of the company’s Control Products & Solutions segment.

Fristam Pumps engineer
Fristam Pumps promoted Samuel Gonzalez to applications engineer. In his new role, he will provide field support, technical support and customer assistance to Fristam’s Latin American customers. Fristam Pumps manufactures sanitary centrifugal and positive displacement pumps as well as blenders and mixers used by the beverage, dairy, food and pharmaceutical/biotech industries.

APV Engineered Coatings product development manager
APV Engineered Coatings has hired Lon Bauer as product development manager. Bauer will be responsible for developing new coatings for flexible films and textiles, including development work on the company’s VYNGUARD line of premium high-performance coatings.

Awards, milestones & celebrations

Nulogy PackStar Awards
Nulogy, a provider of cloud-based solutions for the contract packaging industry, awarded its annual PackStar Awards to customers for innovation, improvement and excellence. They are: Accel – Break the Mold Award; ARI Packaging – Best Network Builder Award; Crescent – Leader of the Pack Award; Industrial Aid – David vs Goliath Award; Nova Pack – Nulogy Advocate Award; and Universal Container & Packaging – Always Be Compliant Award.

Daman 40th anniversary
Daman is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year with week of activities including events for employees, customers, vendors and the community. The company, which was founded by Jack D. Davis in Mishawaka, Indiana, designs and manufactures hydraulic valve manifolds and related products.

SLM Solutions trade journal awards
SLM Solutions was honored for its innovations — including one for Best of Industry — by the trade journal “MM Maschinenmarkt” in the section “Trend Topics.” SLM Solutions have had years of experience in the development, assembly and sales of machines and integrated system solutions with regard to the Selective Laser Melting technology. The Lübeck-based enterprise creates sector metal-based additive manufacturing technology, also known as 3D printing.

Corbion product testing
Corbion is testing, validating and selling pre-marketing volumes of Poly Lactic Acid  (PLA). Its new 75 kTpa PLA production plant is anticipated to start-up within the second half of 2018. In advance of this, these PLA resins will now be extended to include the North American market, following their positive launch in the European and Pacific markets.

Powder Show anniversary awards
The Powder & Bulk Solids Conference & Exhibition (Powder Show) marked its 40th anniversary by honoring exhibitors who havebeen at all Powder Shows for the last 40 years. Those recognized included Buhler Aeroglide, Dynamic Air, Delevan, Eriez, Sturtevant, Chantland, Cyclonaire, H-P Products, Feeco, Vieco, Flexicon, Nederman, VAC-U-MAX,  Morris Coupling Co., Wyssmont, Rotex, Prater, Benold Ajax, Jenike and Unitrak.

Vetter manufacturer awards
bbVie, a biopharmaceutical company, has awarded Vetter, a contract manufacturing and development organization, the Triumph Award for 2015. Vetter received this award as a contract manufacturer in the category Third-Party Manufacturers – Supplier of the Year. The company also recently won the WorldStar Award 2016 for its syringe closure system Vetter-Ject and the 2016 CMO Leadership Award in four categories including quality, capabilities, expertise, and compatibility.

Cortec Corporation technical papers
Cortec Corporation and its partners will present a record 11 technical papers at biggest European Corrosion Conference, EuroCorr, in September in France. This is one of the biggest line-ups ever for a single conference and is a result of long-term, dedicated work and research conducted by Cortec Corporation® and its collaborators. The company is a global manufacturer of environmentally safe corrosion inhibitors, and it collaborates with technical universities in Europe as well as USA and Asia.

Yokogawa Corporation member of council
Yokogawa Corporation of America has been approved as an affiliate member by the Board of Directors for the American Chemical Council (ACC). The ACC is America’s oldest trade association of its kind, representing companies engaged in the business of chemistry.

BCR Environmental CEO award
BCR Environmental Corporation President and CEO Aaron Zahn was named by the Jacksonville Business Journal as one of the city’s up-and-coming leaders under the age of 40. The company develops technologies for the advanced treatment and conversion of wastewater and organic waste.

METTLER TOLEDO weighing award
METTLER TOLEDO was named Best Weighing Company and Best Laboratory Scale/Balance in the Weighing Review Reader’s Choice Awards. The XPE three-place precision balance without draft shield received the lab scale/balance category recognition.

Dynamic Energy Services safety award
Dynamic Energy Services International LLC received the Award of Honor from the National Safety Council for having the lowest OSHA TRIR within its category. The full service, fully integrated fabrication, construction, commissioning and maintenance provider serves the global energy industry.

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