Industry News

Wood Group and Siemens form joint venture to create global integrated rotating equipment service provider 

Wood Group and Siemens AG (“Siemens”) have entered into an agreement to form a joint venture consisting of the Maintenance and Power Solutions businesses of Wood Group GTS (excluding its Rolls Wood Group, TransCanada Turbines and Sulzer Wood joint ventures)1, and Siemens’ TurboCare business unit (“TurboCare”) which provides aftermarket gas turbine, steam turbine and generator design, repair and manufacturing services. 

The venture will be a differentiated, integrated rotating equipment service provider to the power generation, oil & gas and industrial sectors. It will benefit from the complementary strengths of Wood Group and Siemens in rotating equipment aftermarket services. Wood Group has depth and experience in asset operations, maintenance, risk management & life-cycle optimization, and power plant construction services, and has a strong presence in oil & gas and process industries. TurboCare has primarily operated in the power generation segment, offering aftermarket gas turbine, steam turbine and generator design, repair and manufacturing services. The joint venture will have greater capability, market reach and an expanded global footprint. 

The name for the joint venture will be announced prior to completion, which is currently expected in the first quarter of 2014 and is subject to a range of conditions including applicable merger control approvals. 

Siemens opens US Valve Positioner Configuration Center

On Oct. 4,^, Siemens Process Instrumentation hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to inaugurate its new U.S. Valve Positioner Configuration Center for the assembly of its Sipart PS2 valve positioners in Spring House, PA. The center, part of a 40,000 Sq. Ft. facility in Spring House, will better support the requirements of the growing U.S. valve market for industries such as power generation, chemical, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and oil and gas.

The Spring House facility is certified to three key management system standards that will better support domestic manufacturing and quality control, including ISO 9001:2008 for Quality Management Systems, ISO 14001:2004 for Environmental Management and OHSA S 18001:2008 for Occupational Health and Safety Management.

An international project team collaborated to ensure the success of this expansion. With this new center, Siemens can configure the Sipart PS2 intelligent valve positioner.

The Sipart PS2 electropneumatic valve positioner is used to control the final control element of pneumatic linear or part-turn actuators. The electropneumatic valve positioner moves the actuator to a valve position corresponding to the setpoint.

Siemens boasts employees with more than 40 years’ experience in Spring House, and is a part of community outreach such as Caring Hands and the Wissahickon Creek Water Project.

For further information about Siemens process instrumentation business, click here.

Generac to Acquire Generator Business from Baldor Electric Company, a Subsidiary of ABB Group

Generac Holdings Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of generators and other engine powered products, announced today the signing of a purchase agreement with Baldor Electric Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ABB Group, to acquire substantially all of the assets of Baldor’s generator products division.

Located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Baldor Generators offers a complete line of portable, mobile, standby and prime power generators ranging from 3kW to 2.5MW throughout North America. For almost 50 years, Baldor Generators and its predecessors have served the power generation market with a comprehensive, reliable product offering and flexible operating environment.

“Acquiring Baldor Generators is a great strategic fit for Generac’s business, providing us immediate access to a larger industrial product line to better support the North American and global power generation markets,” said Aaron Jagdfeld, President and Chief Executive Officer of Generac. “By offering additional power solutions up to 2.5MW, this acquisition improves our competitive position in the marketplace by increasing the addressable market that our distribution partners can serve.”

Jagdfeld continued, “Investing in the Baldor Generator business accelerates our organic efforts to increase our share of the commercial and industrial power generation market while also adding significant production and test capacity for future growth. With our enhanced scale and focus, we believe we can execute on the meaningful revenue and cost synergies that we have identified to date.”

Following the close of the transaction, the employees of Baldor Generators will become employees of Generac and the Oshkosh, WI facility will become part of Generac’s manufacturing footprint. Although the Baldor brand name is not included past a transitionary period, Generac will continue to support Baldor Generator’s existing customers and distribution network going forward. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2013, pending standard closing conditions. The terms of the transaction were not announced.

R.I.P. Ralph Buscarello, Vibration Icon

With heavy hearts Update International Inc. is mourning the passing of Ralph T. Buscarello. Ralph passed away on September 5, 2013. Ralph was instrumental in getting vibration analysis where is it today. This man will be greatly missed in the Machinery Maintenance World. Services will be announced after arrangements have been made.