New analysis of the recently revealed Dragonfly (Havex) malware suggests that it has been targeting packaged consumer goods industries – especially the pharmaceutical sector – rather than the energy sector as was previously believed.
UPDATED: Danfoss has launched a bid to buy the Finnish drives-maker Vacon in a cash deal offering €34 for each Vacon share and valuing the business at €1,038m. Danfoss says that the bid is in line with its strategic focus on creating profitable growth and that Vacon is a good match to achieve this ambition. Both Danfoss Power Electronics and Vacon are significant players in the AC drives business, it adds, and together they would gain an even stronger market position.
Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation, and Fanuc, the world’s largest company in CNC and robots, have announced a global collaboration agreement aimed at achieving more seamless integrated manufacturing.
Members of the Fieldbus Foundation and the Hart Communication Foundation have voted to merge their organisations to form a new corporation, called FieldComm Group, dedicated to the needs of intelligent devices and their integration in automation.
A legal dispute between Rockwell Automation and Beckhoff Automation over linear motor patents has been settled “amicably”, with Rockwell granting Beckhoff licences to more than a dozen of its US and European linear motor patents.
The US manufacturing sector has rebounded sharply from its three-month low in July to hit its highest level since April 2010, according to the latest PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) survey, published by Markit.
SKF’s long-serving president and CEO, Tom Johnstone, is stepping down and will be succeeded by Alrik Danielson, who has been president and CEO of the Swedish metal powders producer Höganäs since 2005. Danielson worked at SKF from 1987 to 2005, and before he left was president of SKF’s Industrial Division and a member of its executive committee.
ABB is selling its Full Service contract maintenance business to Nordic Capital for an undisclosed amount. The business is claimed to be the European market-leader in industrial maintenance outsourcing services, with a particularly strong position in the Nordic region. ABB says that the operation has limited synergies with its core power and automation portfolio.
Global sales of IE3 high-efficiency electric motors and the equivalent Nema Premium machines will almost double to more than $8bn by 2018, according to a new forecast from the analyst, IHS. With many LV motor markets becoming increasingly regulated in favour of IE2 and IE3 motors, the decline of low-efficiency IE1 motors has begun “in earnest”, says the analyst.
Emerson Electric is planning to sell its mechanical power transmission business and could raise $1bn from the sale, according to a report from Reuters.
Revenues from the global market for PLCs slipped by by 2.1% in 2013, according to a new report from the market analyst, IHS. It attributes the slide, in part, to China delaying many investments as its leaders have set financial stability as the country's most important objective, and are applying only moderate stimulus.
The sensor-maker Turck Banner is harnessing its experience of using LEDs in photoelectric sensors, to diversify into the general LED-based lighting market, with a portfolio of products ranging from lighting for industrial control cabinets to fittings for mobile homes.
The bearings-maker SKF is investing $30m to establish a Global Technical Centre in the US. The centre will employ around 80 engineers within its first four years of operation, with plans to expand to 200 subsequently.
Bauer Gear Motors is building a new manufacturing headquarters in Esslingen, Germany, which, it says, will halve lead times for configured gear-motors. Most of the €10m investment is being spent on a new building for producing gear-motors and on a new office building with conference rooms.
A record number of 14,135 robots, worth $788m, were ordered from North American robotics suppliers in the first half of 2014 – an increase of 30% in units sold and 16% in revenue over the same period in 2013 – according to new figures issued by the industry’s trade group, the Robotic Industries Association (RIA).
