Acquisitions, expansions & partnerships
Siemens cyber security center
Siemens has opened a Cyber Security Operation Center (CSOC) to protect industrial facilities. Industrial security specialists based in Lisbon and Munich and in Milford, Ohio, monitor industrial facilities all around the world for cyber threats, warn companies in the event of security incidents and coordinate proactive countermeasures. If the Siemens experts detect an increased risk, they give the customer an early warning, issue recommendations for proactive countermeasures and coordinate their implementation.
Gericke U.S. expansion
Swiss-based Gericke has established an affiliate company in the U.S. – Gericke USA Inc. Through its Somerset, New Jersey, operation, the company aims to address growing customer needs in the U.S. and demand for its processing equipment. Gericke engineers and manufactures machines for the process of bulk materials in the chemical, pharmaceutical, food and pet food industries. Its products include systems for silage and conveying of products, feeding and mixing systems as well as grinding and sifting machines supplied as components or as turnkey systems.
ATC Group-Sage Environmental acquisition
ATC Group Services LLC acquired Sage Environmental Consulting, an environmental engineering and technical consulting services provider that focuses on air quality, due diligence and emission reduction credit consulting. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Sage has 24 offices throughout the U.S. As a result of the acquisition, the new company, Sage ATC Environmental Consulting, now has more than 1,500 employees nationwide.
Vertellus production expansion
Vertellus Specialties, a global manufacturer of fine and specialty chemicals, has expanded DEET (diethyl toluamide) production capacity by 80 percent at its Greensboro, North Carolina, site. The expansion accommodates the growth in demand for DEET, an active ingredient in consumer mosquito and tick repellents, and to respond to future demand peaks driven by seasonal change and disease outbreaks such as Zika around the globe.
Schneider training laboratory
Schneider Packaging Equipment Co., a leading, 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. Schneider manufactures end-of-line solutions for case packing, sealing and palletizing.
Rockwell-MagneMotion acquisition
Rockwell Automation has acquired MagneMotion, a manufacturer of patented, high-performance conveyor systems with servo-controlled independent cart technology. The new operation will integrate into Rockwell’s existing control, safety and sensing solutions. The MagneMotion systems have linear synchronous motor technology to achieve higher throughput and greater flexibility. In 2014 Rockwell built its motion control business with an acquisition of Jacobs Automation and its iTRAK system.
Appointments
Trelleborg marketing president
Trelleborg Sealing Solutions appointed Linda Muroski as president of Marketing Americas, headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Previously she held leadership roles with BASF, most recently serving as director of water solutions, North America. Muroski holds an MBA from Penn State University and participated on the MBA advisory board, where she was appointed vice-chair. Trelleborg is a global developer, manufacturer and supplier of precision seals and bearings
Hoover new VPs
Hoover Container Solutions has appointed Scott Meints as vice president of service operations and Adolfo Aguilera as vice president of manufacturing. Meints has served in various management positions at Hoover and will be responsible for growing the company’s service-related offerings in the global market and product development and innovation. Aguilera has more than 18 years of manufacturing experience, most recently serving as the director of manufacturing at TAS Energy Inc. He will be responsible for managing all aspects of manufacturing operations including safety, production, quality assurance and maintenance. Meints has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Bellevue University and is a certified welding inspector. Aguilera received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso, as well as a Master of Science in engineering from Purdue University.
Honeywell president/COO
Honeywell appointed Darius Adamczyk as its president and chief operating office. The heads of all Honeywell businesses along with HOS Gold now report to him. Since 2014, Adamczyk has served as president and CEO of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies, a developer of high-performance products and solutions. Rajeev Gautam has succeeded Adamczyk in his previous role, and Rebecca Liebert will succeed Gautam as president of Honeywell UOP. A Polish immigrant, Adamczyk earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Michigan State University before attending Syracuse University for his master’s degree in computer engineering and Harvard University for his MBA.
Actinium clinical director
Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that develops targeted payload immunotherapeutics for the treatment of advanced cancers, has appointed Jennifer Liberi as director, clinical operations under the company’s dead of clinical development and senior vice president. She will manage clinical trials for for Iomab-B, Actimab-A and future clinical programs. In her previous position at Noven, she planned and managed Phase 1-4 clinical trials and ensured adherence to budgets and timelines associated with these trials.
M2 Technologies sales VP
M2 Technologies appointed Mark Caruso as vice president of sales and marketing. He will oversee sales-related functions, including national sales management, marketing operations and partner programs for manufacturing design solutions such as Autodesk and Edgecam. Caruso is a software industry veteran with more than two decades of sales management experience. He comes to M2 from PeopleFluent, where he exceeded goals and increased revenue as VP of sales development. Mark received his bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University.
APV Engineered Coatings VP/technical director
APV Engineered Coatings promoted John Russell to vice president and technical director, where he is responsible for managing staff chemists, quality control, and formulation and production troubleshooting. Russell has worked for APV for 16 years as a chemist and focused on high-performance coatings for flexible films and advanced textiles. He has engineered chemistries with new-to-market advances in anti-graffiti properties, hydrophobic and hydrophilic functionality, and outdoor weathering characteristics. APV is a custom formulator and manufacturer of industrial coatings and advanced chemical product.
Awards, milestones & celebrations
WELTEC plant
WELTEC BIOPOWER is building a 500-kW plant for Stephen Carson’s agricultural enterprise near Strabane, Northern Ireland. It is scheduled to open as early as this summer. The plant’s two stainless-steel digesters will be fed with 24,500 tons of cattle manure, whole plant silage, dry chicken dung, grass silage, sugar beets and small quantities of maize. The company also completed a 500-kW biogas project Low Farm in Sherburn, England, in September 2015. It produces power and heat from pig manure, dry chicken dung, beets and some maize silage.
Bio-based Material of the Year winners
The Bio-based Material of the Year 2016 was given to three developments in the bio-based economy with a 2015 or 2016 market launch. They are: Orineo BVBA, Touch of Nature, a dilled bio-based resin for stimulating biomaterials; Evonik Nutrition & Care GmbH, REWOFERM SL 446, novel sophorolipid-type biosurfactant; and Covestro Deutschland AG (DE), Impranileco, bio-based waterborne polyurethane dispersions for textile coatings.
Plymouth Tube safety award
Plymouth Tube of Streator, Illinois won the 2016 Rusty Demeules Award for Safety Excellence from the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International (FMA). The award recognizes a company with a demonstrated safety culture and is named in honor of Rusty Demeules, a volunteer contributor who made significant contributions to FMA while serving as the president of its Safety Committee. Plymouth Tube was founded in 1968 and has expanded to 13 locations. It manufactures cold drawing seamless alloy and carbon tubing from steel hollows, specializing in small diameters, and it provides uniquely shaped tubing such as squares and rectangles.
Pella Corporation energy efficiency award
Window and door manufacturer Pella Corporation of Pella, Iowa, was one of eight businesses recognized as a 2016 Energy Star Partner of the Year for Outstanding Achievements in Energy Efficiency by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Other recipients include Beazer Homes, General Motors Company, Ivey Residential LLC, DirecTV, The Home Depot, Kenton County School District (Fort Wright, Kentucky) and Verizon.
MEMSIC technology innovation award
Based on recent analysis of key companies involved in the AMR sensors market, Frost & Sullivan awarded MEMSIC Inc. the 2016 North American Technology Innovation award. The company has positioned AMR sensor technology to take market share away from Hall sensors, which have performance challenges and limitations. The sensors are already implemented in consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablets. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated uniqueness in developing and leveraging new technologies that significantly impact both the functionality and the customer value of the new products and applications.
New name, identity for Anderson
Anderson Process, a supplier of process equipment and services, has released a new corporate identity. Formerly known as Anderson Pump & Process, it now has a new company name as well as logo and website, andersonprocess.com.
Senet manufacturing leadership award
Senet Inc. won Internet of Things in Manufacturing Leadership category in the Manufacturing Leadership Awards from Frost & Sullivan’s Manufacturing Leadership Council. The company has improved production and supply chain processes by leveraging insights gained by adding sensors and connectivity to plant equipment to optimize maintenance, operations and quality. Senet provides the first public Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) for the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT) market in North America.
