The Brazilian motors and controls manufacturer WEG, is entering the European servo market for the first time. The company has been selling servo motors and drives in other parts of the world for about 25 years, and has decided that the time is now right to offer these products in Europe as well. WEG's latest servo products – its sixth generation – have been designed with the European market in mind.
Sales of electric motors and drives to the European oil and gas sector were worth $908.7m in 2012, and will rise to $1,152m by 2017, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan.
The American mechanical power transmission components manufacturer Rexnord has bought Precision Gear Holdings and its two operating subsidiaries, Merit Gear and Precision Gear, for an undisclosed sum. PGH employs around 190 people and has annual sales of worth about $45m.
The unconventional energy revolution for shale gas and oil in North America has led to strong sales of medium-voltage (MV) drives in the Americas, with the market expected to expand by more than 14.5% during 2013 and a further 9.5% in 2014. According to the market analyst IHS, these strong sales offset weaker sales in China during 2012, resulting in the global market for MV drives expanding by 6% to reach $2.6bn. It expects the 2013 global growth rate to average around 8%, with big regional differences.
The Finnish drives-maker Vacon is entering the medium-voltage and systems drives markets for the first time, as part of a plan to achieve an average growth rate of at least 10% over the period 2014–2020. Until now, the company, which was formed in 1993, has focused on LV drives as well as converters for renewable energy applications.
The US government has announced plans to introduce new efficiency standards for electric motors that it estimates could save roughly 1 trillion kWh of electricity over 30 years – enough to power almost every US home for a year. Over a 30-year period, the savings for US electricity users would amount to around $23.1bn.
Business-to-business (B2B) decision-makers are increasingly using social media – in particular, LinkedIn – when making purchases, according a new US study. The survey of 443 people working in American industry reveals that 25% of them use LinkedIn to gather information when making purchasing decisions, compared to 12% in a similar survey in 2011.
The Swedish compressor manufacturer Atlas Copco has launched a campaign under which it will donate trees to the landlocked African nation of Burkina Faso for every VSD (variable speed drive) controlled compressor that it sells. It hopes to donate 225,000 trees by the end of the campaign in March 2014, to create 550 acres of forest – an area similar to New York’s Central Park.
Global sales of electric motors for non-industrial applications – from domestic appliances to cars – will grow from 9.8 billion in 2012 to 12 billion by 2018, according to a new study by IHS. It attributes the predicted 23% growth partly to consumers demanding higher efficiencies and more automated features in their products.
Rockwell Automation is buying Jacobs Automation, a US high-tech manufacturer that has developed an “intelligent” track-based motion control technology for use in machines. Details of the deal have not been released.
GE Intelligent Platforms has announced plans to consolidate its control platforms, standardising them on open systems such as OPC-UA, to support the Industrial Internet. It says that using open systems across its platforms will provide customers with interoperability, secure communications and an optimal user experience (UX).
The share of the industrial communications market held by traditional standalone industrial routers is set to decline over the coming five years as sales of managed Ethernet switches rise, according to a new report by the analyst IHS.
The Brazilian motor-maker WEG has announced plans to invest $345m over the coming five years to expand its facilities and boost production in Mexico and China.
US-based Regal Beloit Corporation is buying the Italian motor manufacturer, Cemp, which produces flameproof motors, mainly for oil, gas and marine applications.
Rockwell Automation is buying vMonitor, which specialises in wireless systems for the oil and gas industry and is claimed to have the world’s largest installed base of wireless wellhead monitoring systems, with more than 6,000 oil and gas well sites around the world. The details of the transaction have not been released.
