• SKF has signed a memorandum of understanding to buy the German lubrication systems specialist Willy Vogel, for an undisclosed sum. Vogel, whose annual sales are worth more than £77m, has two manufacturing sites in Germany, one in France, one in the US, and one in Japan.

• A new European group, PennEngineering Motion Technologies, has been formed to unify the Pittman and MAE brand motor products and resources. Its portfolio will include Pittman Lo-Cog brush-commutated motors, Elcom brushless DC motors and gearmotors, and MAE stepper, brushed and brushless DC motors.

• Tritex, the private US corporation which owns Haydon Switch & Instrument (HSI), is setting up a European operation, Haydon Motion Europe, to market products made by HSI and by Haydon Linear Motors Changzhou, which it set up in China last year.

• Baldor has entered into a technology and sales agreement with a Chinese manufacturer of linear induction motors, the Tech.Full Industry Company. Baldor will assist Tech.Full with design and manufacturing, and creating a Chinese sales network. Baldor will be a minority shareholder in a new company, Baldor-Tech.Full Electric (Harbin).

• REO has bought a fellow-German company, Nieke, which specialises in high-power transformers and chokes. Nieke`s expertise in building devices rated above 1kA, will be harnessed to develop large input and output reactors for the European drives industry.