News and views about companies, staff, products and more. (June 01, 2004)

Ontario Drive & Gear Ltd. (ODG) of New Hamburg, Ont., recently received the Ontario Exports Inc. Global Traders Award of Merit for the southwest region. The award recognizes the success of Ontario companies for exporting excellence in five distinct categories: innovation, market expansion, partnership, student achievement and leadership. Ontario Exports Inc. is the export development agency of the province of Ontario. ODG won the award for its joint venture with Crayford All-Terrain Vehicles of South Africa for developing a vehicle system to meet the challenging needs of South Africa’s Special Forces. The undertaking involves the co-manufacturing of the “Gecko,” a Rapid Deployment Logistical Vehicle. The system integrates ODG’s drive train components while Crayford, the lead contractor, provides local engineering, manufacturing and assembly for the project. ODG and Crayford won the award of merit in the partnership category.

NTN Bearing Corp of Canada Ltd. recently moved its corporate headquarters and warehouse facilities to a new 3.75-acre site at 305 Courtneypark Drive in Mississauga, Ont., not far from its previous location. The two-storey 70,000 sq ft building includes a state-of-the-art warehouse management system designed to support distribution of all NTN products across Canada. The new warehouse uses a stacked, horizontal carousel system, high racking and semi-automated picking technology to provide a 33% increase in warehouse and distribution capacity over the old warehouse.

Flender Power Transmission Inc., Markham, Ont., has completed the reorganization of its North American sales and distribution divisions, which now includes six sub-assembly partners in Canada alone. “We have gone to great lengths to improve our product coverage in this region,” says Roderick Brost, North American sales and marketing manager.

Ronald J. Smith has been promoted to the position of president and chief operating officer of Sumitomo Machinery Corporation of America (SMA), Chesapeake, Virg. His most recent position was vice-president, sales and marketing for the company. Smith has over 12 years of experience with SMA and more than 25 years of power transmission industry knowledge. Sumitomo Heavy Industries is the parent of SMA and of SM-Cyclo Canada, Mississauga, Ont.

OCM precision roller chain is now stocked in eastern Canada by Power-Motion Components Inc., Aurora, Ont. OCM chain is made in Japan.

An investment group based in Westlake, Ohio, has acquired Bunting Bearings Corp. of Holland, Ohio. Operations and staffing will continue as usual, says Tom Kwiatkowski, president of Bunting.

Grove Gear of Union Grove, Wisc., has awarded Kinecor Inc. of St. Laurent, Que., with its 2003 Canadian Distributor of the Year Award. Grove Gear, a division of Regal-Beloit Corp., is a manufacturer of speed reducers and gearmotors. Kinecor was created in 2001 following the amalgamation five companies: National Bearings Inc, Spencer Industries, Spencer Teris Ltd. Motion Technologies and Wajax Process Technologies. Grove Gear also awarded its 2003 Manufacturer’s Representative of the Year award to Advantage Sales Network Corp., Brampton, Ont. Both presentations were made at the PTDA Canadian Conference in Montreal in May 2004.

Parker Hannifin Corp., Cleveland, Ohio, has formed a new Life Sciences Business Unit to enable the development of technologies driving next-generation advancements in this growing market segment. The new unit incorporates the full range of Parker motion and control technologies to deliver application-specific engineered solutions, from large-scale to miniature integrated systems such as closed loop electronic pressure control. “Our new Life Sciences Business Unit offers OEMs a single point of access to Parker’s motion and fluid control core competencies,” said Parker president and CEO Don Washkewicz. The new business unit will be based in Hollis, N.H., at the headquarters of the Pneutronics Division. For more information, visit www.parker.com/lifesciences.

Large spools of Goodyear Flexsteel Conveyor Belt were loaded on to rail cars in Concord, Ont., recently for shipment to a U.S. port, where they were to be loaded on to a ship for transportation to the Escondida mine, one of the world’s largest copper mines, in Chile, South America. The multi-million dollar order for Goodyear Canada of Toronto totalled 7,490 metres of high tension steel cable conveyor belting in 20 rolls.

Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. of Montreal recently awarded SKF Canada Ltd. of Scarborough, Ont., with a Supplier Award for 2003. SKF Canada received a Bronze Award in the Services and Maintenance Category for all Abitibi-Consolidated operations. This is the second consecutive award for SKF Canada, which also received the 2002 Bronze Award in the same services and maintenance category. Abitibi-Consolidated operates 27 paper mills, 21 sawmills, four remanufacturing facilities and an engineered wood facility in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., South Korea, China and Thailand.

Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. also awarded Canadian Bearings Ltd. of Mississauga, Ont., a Supplier Award for 2003. Canadian Bearings received a Gold award in the Services and Maintenance Category for all Abitibi-Consolidated operations. This is the second consecutive year of awards for Canadian Bearings, which also received Supplier of the Year and the Gold Award for the same category in 2002. The award was given in appreciation of Canadian Bearing’s continuing efforts in building a partnership with Abitibi-Consolidated, and offering excellence in the area of services and maintenance.