Parker Hannifin has bought SSD Drives India from the privately owned automation and technology group, Unidel India, for an undisclosed sum. The business, which designs, integrates and sells low-voltage AC, DC and servo drives, had sales last year worth around $7m.

The acquisition will be integrated into Parker`s automation group as SSD India, and is expected to add to earnings within the first full year of integration.

The Indian business, which has distributed Eurotherm/SSD products for 12 years, adopted the SSD name about a year ago. Parker SSD Drives` general manager Peter Vos describes it as "a systems integrator with a very high level of application knowledge and great experience in building our drives into sophisticated control systems".

Parker Hannifin acquired the global SSD Drives business — formerly Eurotherm Drives — from Compass Partners International in August 2005.