Acquisitions, Expansions & Partnerships
Honeywell developing technology to reduce Indian crude oil imports
Honeywell’s India Technology Center is developing a new technology to develop advanced hydrocracking catalysts at a new plant that can produce higher yields of clean-burning diesel fuel from crude oil. India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan unveiled the technology, which may help reduce crude oil imports while producing environmentally preferable diesel fuels.
Honeywell UOP has invested about $40 million to develop several technologies at the center, which aims to help Indian refiners get more clean transportation fuels from each barrel of oil.
Freudenberg expands filtration services
Freudenberg Filtration Technologies is responding to the need for comprehensive gas-phase filtration by expanding its range of products and services through investments in technology, staff and new business acquisitions. Last year, the company acquired a gas-phase filtration business in North America signaling its expansion into this market. Freudenberg plans to continue expanding its product line, offering all related services and solutions from a single source, including on-site contaminant analysis to the selection of filter media and filter units to permanent monitoring. High-quality gas-phase filtration systems are especially effective in contamination control.
BioGenes and collaborating with Eurofins Munich
BioGenes GmbH will collaborate with Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing Munich (Eurofins Munich), to serve as its preferred partner for HCP related impurity testing. BioGenes will provide generic 360-HCP kits and specific HCP assay development services as well as related 2D electrophoresis and concomitant antibody preparation. Eurofins Munich will provide complementary analytical services to BioGenes spanning the product development cycle from lead discovery to late stage clinical development.
Ingersoll Rand acquires assets of USE Co. Inc. and Osterbauer Compressor Service
Ingersoll Rand acquired the assets of USE Co. Inc. (USE), an Ingersoll Rand distributor based in Santa Fe Springs, California. USE has been an Ingersoll Rand Compressed Air Equipment and Accessories Distributor since 1923. The company sells compressed air equipment, parts and services to industrial customers in the greater Los Angeles area. The company has approximately 40 employees who will join the Ingersoll Rand team at the Ingersoll Rand Santa Fe Springs Customer Center. The center will be part of the newly formed Ingersoll Rand Los Angeles District, together with the Buena Park Customer Center (recently acquired Osterbauer Equipment Services).
Ingersoll Rand has also acquired the assets of Osterbauer Compressor Service, an Ingersoll Rand distributor based in Buena Park, California. Osterbauer Compressor Service sells compressed air equipment, parts and services to customers in the greater Los Angeles area, and has approximately 30 employees. The company has been an Ingersoll Rand Compressed Air Equipment and Accessories Distributor since 1934.
Bureau Veritas continues expansion in U.S. petrochemical market
Bureau Veritas acquired Summit Inspection Services, Inc. (Summit), a U.S. company specializing in fugitive emissions inspection services for the OPEX petrochemical industry. The company employs more than 175 people and generated revenue of approximately $16 million in 2015. Summit will strengthen Bureau Veritas’ presence in the petrochemical market in the U.S., especially in the Gulf Coast and West Coast corridors. These regions offer significant growth prospects due to increased petrochemical production.
Photo courtesy of A.W. Chesterton Company
Appointments
A.W. Chesterton Company appoints new president & CEO
A.W. Chesterton appointed Andrew W. Chesterton, formerly executive vice president and chairman of the board, to be the company’s new president and CEO. He succeeds Brian O’Donnell, a longtime Chesterton executive, who will serve as a senior advisor on a variety of projects through the end of the year. The company recently unveiled an expanded headquarters at its Groveland location with a new Global Training Center, Valve Emissions Testing Facility and Industrial Equipment Service Center.
Photo courtesy of AccessESP
AccessESP appoints Middle East and North Africa region manager
AccessESP appointed Anwar Assal as Middle East and North Africa region manager. Based in Dubai, Assal will be responsible for developing and enhancing new and existing AccessESP relationships across the region. With 20 years of well completions experience, Assal has extensive engineering and operational knowledge of completions technology, products, equipment, procedures and practices. He is also experienced working in global markets including Africa, Europe and Asia. Between 2008 and 2012, Assal filed nine U.S. patent applications and has received numerous completions awards.
Photo courtesy of HIMA
Alexander Horch named new head of development
Dr. Alexander Horch is the new head of development at HIMA. In addition to aligning the development organization with customer and market requirements, Horch will help HIMA continue to develop its safety automation leadership. This includes further developing and integrating functional safety expertise to reflect industry-wide issues such as Industrial Internet, cybersecurity and the role of human beings in the process industry. Horch previously worked at the energy and automation group ABB.
Photo courtesy of Belton
Awards, Milestones & Celebrations
Baldor Electric’s Belton facility reaches safety milestone
The Baldor Electric Company gearbox manufacturing plant located in Belton, South Carolina, recently completed 18 years without a lost time accident, and employees have worked one year without any recordable accidents. Recently, the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation recognized the facility as a 2016 Palmetto Shining Star recipient for achieving one million or more safe work hours without a lost-time injury. The Belton facility, at its current location since 1995 and expanded in 2014, produces more than 100,000 right angle worm and helical gearboxes per year for industrial users.
Photo courtesy of API
API Resolution of Appreciation
The Committee on Refining Equipment and Subcommittee on Piping and Valves awarded Gobind Khiani with a Resolution of Appreciation for his service to the API standard activities.
Photo courtesy of Blackmer
Winner of 2016 Dover Sons & Daughters Scholarship Program
Blackmer, part of PSG, a Dover company, selected Jason Taft as a local winner of the Dover Sons & Daughters Scholarship Program. Taft will attend the Cleveland Institute of Art where he will major in industrial design. The scholarship recognizes outstanding high school seniors and current college students who are the children of Dover employees and have demonstrated excellence through their academic record, test scores, leadership abilities and through their extracurricular activities and work record. Now in its fifth year, this program has made 193 awards totaling nearly $1.2 million in scholarship support.
Bronkhorst USA celebrates 10th anniversary
Bronkhorst USA reached its 10-year anniversary as a leading provider of low flow measurement and control solutions. Bronkhorst celebrates a decade of technical and commercial growth, and is committed to the future of the company, its products and the industries and customers they serve.
AccessESP replaces ESP using standard slickline unit
AccessESP retrieved and replaced an existing ESP for a major operator on the Alaskan North Slope using a standard slickline unit. The well, which had been in production for more than 500 days, experienced a significant drop in pump production rate as the pump impellers began to show signs of erosion due to solids production. In October 2015, the client decided to retrieve the existing ESP and deploy a new AccessESP retrievable assembly using a standard slickline unit. Doing so helped save the client significant time and money compared to conventional ESP methods.
Recipients of 2016 James LaFrankie Scholarship Awards announced
American Water announced the recipients of the 25th annual James V. LaFrankie Scholarship Awards. The awards were distributed nationwide to nine college-bound students of full-time American Water employees who demonstrate an interest in water-related industry occupational fields. The scholarships are awarded for a term of one year in individual awards of $1,000. The scholarship award recipients include: Jennifer Caggiano of Springfield, Pennsylvania; Taylor Harris of St. Louis, Missouri; Earl Heim III. of Somers Points, New Jersey; Elizabeth Macko of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Cristopher Mezzina of Jackson, New Jersey; Michael Paranich Jr. and Nicole Paranich of Mountain Top, Pennsylvania; Meredith Quinn of Doylestown, Pennsylvania; Wren Woodburn of Pontiac, Illinois.
