Expansions: Omron, Emerson, Bosch Rexroth, more

A positive outlook for manufacturing is making itself known through the expansion plans of con

By Control Engineering Staff July 24, 2007

A positive outlook for manufacturing is making itself known through the expansion plans of control, automation and testing companies worldwide. Omron Corp. and Emerson Process Management are opening technology centers in China, while TMEIC GE is expanding in India. Domestic U.S. expansions also have been announced by Altronic, Bosch Rexroth FKI Logistex, and TÜVRheinland.

Omron ’s R&D Collaborative Innovation Center in Shanghai, China — its first outside Japan — will focus on further developing the company’s competencies in sensing and control technology. The center will provide a space for collaborative innovation between Omron researchers and domestic institutions, says the company. Researchers there will focus on vision sensing, including facial recognition, and control technologies that equip machines with near-human levels of judgment. The center is part of Omron’s Grand Design 2010 management plan, which includes business expansion in China as a top priority in order to reach profit goals.

Emerson Process Management opened two technology centers in Tianjin, China, to meet the rising demand for control-valve and valve-automation products in the growing process manufacturing industry in the Asia Pacific region. The centers feature one of the most advanced flow laboratories in operation, according to the company. Research and product design engineers will investigate valve technologies and verify valve-performance capabilities at the 12,000-square-meter Emerson campus, which includes a manufacturing facility that provides after-market support services. The campus, within the Wuqing development area in Tianjin, also supports a replacement-parts quick-ship program.

TMEIC GE opened its first sales and engineering office in India in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. TMEIC GE is a joint venture between Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric, and General Electric in the industrial drive systems business. The office will provide sales, engineering, and support services to automation projects in India, including the recently announced project with India-based JSW Steel. That $80 million deal will provide JSW Steel with a complete electrical and automation system at its Kamataka hot strip mill, to be commissioned in 2009. With offices on five continents, TMEIC GE employs 2,200 people to design and develop advanced automation and drive systems for customers on five continents.

FKI Logistex opened a new, multimillion-dollar Technology & Education Center (TEC) in Cincinnati where visitors can test their own products and containers on the company’s equipment, and preview material handling solutions. The center offers customers access to fully functional, automated sortation, conveying, AS/RS, and order fulfillment systems for solutions demonstrations, proof-of-concept testing, and operator training. It also enables companies to start training for new installations and learn best practices for operation and maintenance of existing systems.

TÜVRheinland , known for independent testing and certification services, established an office and testing facility in Rochester, NY and announced it has signed an agreement with Eastman Kodak Company to become its primary supplier of third-party testing and certification services. TÜVRheinland will test and certify products in the medical, information technology, audio/video, laboratory, industrial machinery, and telecommunications industries. Identifying a growing need for additional testing locations in the northeast region, the company plans to serve other product manufacturers in Western and Northern New York, the Ohio Valley, and Western Pennsylvania from the Rochester office.

Along with establishing a new Engineered System Services (ESS) division, Girard, OH based Altronic Controls announced many factory and field personnel changes. Richard P. (Dick) Schook has retired after more than 27 years, most of them as Altronic’s vice president of sales and service. The ESS division of this supplier of industrial ignition systems and instruments was created to offer an expanded range of resources and services to authorized distributors of the company’s control systems.

Bosch Rexroth is moving 120 local employees and employees from its recently acquired Intelligent Hydraulic Drives unit into its 57,000-square-foot facility in Rochester Hills. MI, near Detroit. IHD develops hydraulic hybrid components for motor vehicles. The new facility will house Rexroth’s electric drives and controls, hydraulics, pneumatics, and linear motion and assembly technologies, as well as IHD.

—Edited by Lisa Sutor , Control Engineering daily news desk