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ABB Receives Orders To Upgrade Michigan Gas Fired Power Plant Valued At $ 170 million

Zurich, Switzerland — ABB, the international electrical engineering company, was been awarded a contract for the modernization and maintenance of a gas fired combined cycle power plant in Midland, Mich. The total orders are valued at about $170 million and were placed by Midland Cogeneration Venture Limited Partnership (MCV).

Under the terms of the contract, ABB will modernize 11 gas turbines and provide continuous maintenance services and parts for the upgraded equipment. The Midland plant is North America's largest cogeneration power generation facility, producing both power and heat, with a power output of 1370 megawatts and additional substantial heat production. The modernization is part of MCV's program to continually improve its plant efficiency and performance.

ABB Inc., with U.S. headquarters in Norwalk, Conn., serves customers in power generation, power transmission and distribution, industrial and building systems, financial services, and transportation. The company and its affiliates had annual U.S. revenues of $5.4 billion in 1996 and employed 22,000 people at manufacturing and other facilities in 41 states.

ABB Inc. is part of ABB Group, which had 215,000 employees worldwide in 1996 and revenues of $35 billion.

ITT Automotive Sells Precision Die Casting Business To TMB Industries

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — ITT Automotive, a unit of ITT Industries, Inc., reached a definitive agreement to sell its Precision Die Casting business to Lester Precision Die Castings, Inc., an affiliate of TMB Industries of Chicago. The company expects to close the transaction by the end of February, subject to obtaining required approvals.

This step is consistent with the announced strategy of divesting ITT Automotive's non-core businesses. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Precision Die Casting group designs and manufactures aluminum die cast and structural castings for automotive applications. Typical applications include powertrain and chassis components and assemblies. The unit employs approximately 750 people at four locations in the United States — Rome, Georgia and Bedford Heights, Solon and Twinsburg, Ohio.

The business accounted for approximately $150 million in sales during 1997, according to ITT Automotive.

"This agreement enables ITT Automotive to focus on the growth of our core businesses while providing new development opportunities for our Precision Die Casting employees," said Frank Macher, president of ITT Automotive.

ITT Automotive is a unit of ITT Industries, Inc. a leading worldwide diversified manufacturing company, with 1996 sales of $8.4 billion from its three primary business segments: Automotive, Defense & Electronics, and Fluid Technology. ITT Automotive is one of the world's largest independent suppliers of systems and components to automotive manufacturers.

ITT Defense & Electronics is a world leader in the design, manufacture and support of high technology electronic systems and components for defense and commercial markets. ITT Fluid Technology is one of the world's leading manufacturers of products, systems and services for the movement, measurement, and control of fluids.

Toyota North American Vehicle Production Sets Record in ’97

ERLANGER, Ky. — Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TMMNA) said that Toyota's North American vehicle production reached 838,069 units in 1997. That figure exceeds last year's total by 7 percent.

Of the three automotive plants involved in the production, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. (TMMK) in Georgetown, Ky., led the way with 432,146 vehicles. It produced 325,123 of the nation's top-selling Camry sedan, followed by 80,277 Avalons, and 26,746 of the all-new Sienna minivan.

TMMK also produced 293,203 four-cylinder engines and 142,506 V-6 engines. While increasing its production levels by 12 percent, TMMK made history as the first plant in North America to build minivans and passenger cars on the same production line. TMMK employs 7,600 team members.

New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI), a Toyota-General Motors joint venture in Fremont, Calif., produced 296,971 Toyota vehicles —149,041 Corollas and 147,930 Tacoma trucks. NUMMI also produced 60,838 Chevrolet Prizms. In 1997, NUMMI achieved an aggressive 30-day ramp-up to full production of the all-new, completely redesigned Corolla and Prizm. It also completed a minor model change of the Tacoma, ranked the number-one small truck in North America by J.D. Power and Associates for 1997.

NUMMI employs 4,700 people and recently underwent an expansion of its plastics plant. 1998 production of Corolla and Tacoma is expected to top 305,000 units.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Inc. (TMMC) in Cambridge, Ontario, produced 108,952 Toyota Corollas and as many four-cylinder engines in 1997 - an 11.9 percent increase compared to last year. Production at TMMC is expected to climb even higher in 1998 as a 1.8 million square-foot expansion was completed in 1997. The expansion will increase total plant capacity to 200,000 units and will include the all-new Solara coupe as well as the Corolla. TMMC employs approximately 2,200 people.

North America is Toyota's largest manufacturing presence outside of Japan. Production capacity by the end of 1998 is expected to exceed one million units and will be further increased in 1999 when Toyota's fourth North American vehicle plant, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana, Inc. (TMMI) in Princeton, Ind., begins full production of the T100 truck.

TMMI represents a $700 million investment and will employ a projected 1,300 people. The addition of the T100 truck will bring the total number of Toyota's North American-built models to seven: Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Sienna, Solara, Tacoma and T100.

Finally, an engine plant under construction in Buffalo, W.Va., will produce an estimated 300,000 four-cylinder Corolla engines, and 200,000 V-6 engines for Avalon, Camry, Sienna and Solara vehicles. Toyota Motor Manufacturing, West Virginia, Inc. (TMMWV) represents a $700 million investment and will employ a projected 600 team members when it reaches full production.

The plant is due to begin production of four-cylinder engines later this year. The addition of TMMWV will bring Toyota's North American engine capacity to about 1 million units at full production.

FAB and Design Engineering Merge; New INCAT Solutions Will Provide CAD/CAM/CAE Related Services

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — FAB Consulting, Inc., and Design Engineering Consultancy Services, Inc. (DECS), two Michigan-based computer solutions companies, merged to form INCAT Solutions, Inc. The newly formed company will offer CATIA (Computer Aided Three dimensional Interactive Applications) and other CAD/CAM/CAE related design, education and professional services. INCAT also will sell and support UNIX and Windows based computer systems to customers worldwide.

INCAT will be headquartered in Troy, Mich., beginning in February 1998.

Combining the technical expertise of the original companies, INCAT will build on its track record of competencies in mechanical, automotive and aerospace design; 3 D digital mock up; finite element analysis; CAD/CAM/CAE education; large scale data management; systems integration support and INCAT immediately becomes one of IBM’s largest CATIA business partners and support organizations. It will focus on listening to customers needs in the rapidly changing engineering computer marketplace.

“Our customers are telling us what they need today — solutions that help them bring their products to market faster and make their engineering teams more efficient,” said Philip Borchard, vice president. “That’s exactly what we will give them at INCAT.” To service the U.S. and Canada, the new company has offices in Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, New York, Seattle, Toronto and Windsor.

The merger enables INCAT to execute and expand its global strategies to service the business requirements of automotive, aerospace and manufacturing companies with many multinational sites. The IDC Group (Interactive Design Computing Group Ltd.), based in Hemel Hempstead, England, is an equity partner of INCAT. In total, the IDC Group currently has more than 300 employees and over $50 million in revenue.

CATIA CADAM Solutions Version 4 provides unique engineering solutions to simulate the complete virtual product and all its associated manufacturing processes, making it a catalyst for the accelerated creation of innovative engineering designs and products. CATIA is developed by Dassault Systemes of France.

Centaur Thermal Launches Heat Storage System Production; Automotive Rapid Heat System Has Lower Emissions

DETROIT — Centaur Thermal Systems Inc. announced the production and marketing launch of a revolutionary automotive technology.

The Centaur Heat Storage System represents a major advance in vehicle heating, defrosting and demisting, while reducing vehicle emissions, and improving fuel economy, safety and passenger comfort. "The system recovers waste heat from a car's engine and stores it for release on the next cold start of the engine,” Klaus Woerner, Centaur president, said. “You don't have to preheat your car on cold wintery mornings. Or scrape the windshield until you're blue in the face."

Production of the Heat Storage System is under way at Centaur Thermal System's plant in Cambridge, Ontario. The product is being shipped to Votex GmbH, a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG in Germany, for installation in Golf and Passat models by VW dealers in Europe.

Later this year, the product will be offered in other Volkswagen and Audi models, and is expected to be available as a dealer-installed option in North America.

Woerner said the product is in advanced testing stages at several European and North American auto companies for original equipment application.

Centaur Thermal Systems Inc. is a joint-venture of ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc., a designer and producer of automated manufacturing and test systems, based in Cambridge, Ont.; and Standard Motor Products Inc., a manufacturer of replacement parts for automotive engine electronics, climate control systems and other components.

Chrysler Orders SMS CT Scanner

AUSTIN, Texas — Scientific Measurement Systems (SMS) received a purchase order from Chrysler Corp. for one of its SMARTScan Computed Tomography (CT) Scanner systems. The system will be installed at Chrysler's Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg, Ohio.

Matt Gutierrez, SMS' vice president of sales and marketing, said this is the first CT system Chrysler has purchased, and that the SMS CT system will be primarily used to analyze automotive drivetrain parts, providing dimensional data for use in inspection and process control.

Gutierrez said, "The automotive components market is certainly one of our target markets. I also believe our software analysis capabilities were an important consideration in [Chrysler’s] purchasing decision."

SMS also has a CT installation at General Motors, and has received system orders from Fiat CRF (Torino, Italy) and Toyota Corp. (Japan), Gutierrez said. Through SMS' scanning services department, the company has done work for most of the world's major auto manufacturers, he said.

TomaHawk Receives Order from Boeing for Engineering Services

SAN DIEGO — TomaHawk announced that the Engineering Services Division (ESD) of its subsidiary TomaHawk II, Inc. was awarded a three-year contract for Engineering Services from The Boeing Co., Douglas Products Division.

Pursuant to this contract, TomaHawk will provide Numerical Control Programming and other Engineering Support services used in the manufacturing of aerospace parts. The maximum value of services to be provided by TomaHawk under this contract is $1.92 million. Work under this contract will be performed primarily from TomaHawk's San Diego Engineering Services Division.

TomaHawk II, Inc. is a Full-Service Engineering company which specializes in Document Imaging and Conversion Services, Engineering Design, and Manufacturing Services to both the federal and commercial marketplaces.

Innovative Tech Systems Awarded Boeing Contract for SPAN FM Software and Services

WARMINSTER, Pa. — Innovative Tech Systems, Inc., developer of the award-winning SPAN FM Integrated Facilities Automation Software and Remote Data Collection Systems, announced a $3.4 million contract with The Boeing Co.

Under the Total Enterprise Asset Management System (TEAMS) initiative at The Boeing Co., SPAN FM solutions will be a core business system to support facilities operations in its Commercial Airplane and Information, Space and Defense Systems worldwide.

In addition, The Boeing Co. selected SPAN FM CAFM products and services as a solution to resolving Year 2000 issues within these processes. All Innovative Tech software is Year 2000 compliant.

Innovative Tech Systems, Inc., of Warminster, Pa., is the developer of the award-winning SPAN FM Software and Remote Data Collection Systems, the most comprehensive integrated Facilities Automation solutions available. The suite of integrated SPAN FM products automate the tracking and management of facilities, assets, maintenance and operations, space design, security and life safety.

SPAN FM solutions are compatible with most core business systems, and offer an integrated and scaleable approach that spans all facilities management disciplines. This enables organizations to become fully integrated in a step-by-step approach, adding applications as growth demands.

Innovative Tech's integrated Facilities Automation systems are marketed worldwide through direct sales in the United States and Canada, and international strategic partnerships in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Smith International to Acquire Wilson Industries

HOUSTON — The board of directors at Smith International, Inc. and Wilson Industries, Inc. approved the definitive agreement for merging the two companies.

Wilson Industries, Inc. is primarily a U.S. based stocking distributor of materials for drilling, production, refining and petrochemical plants and pipeline operations, and its Houston Engineers subsidiary supplies drilling and fishing tools and directional drilling services to the worldwide drilling and production industry.

Smith International, Inc. is a leading supplier of premium products and services to the oil and gas exploration and production industry through its five principal business units — M-I Fluids, M-I Swaco, Smith Tool, Smith Diamond Technology, and Smith Drilling & Completions.

Loch's ChemTech Signs Noted Physicist To Work On Light Detection And Ranging Devices

AUSTIN, Texas — Henry Blair, a noted Tucson physicist with a Ph.D. in engineering, signed a long-term consulting contract with Chemical Detection Technology, Inc., commonly known as ChemTech.

Included in ChemTech's agreement with Blair are certain technical abstract disclosures representing decades of research on light detection and ranging (LIDAR) devices. "The technology Dr. Blair is bringing has far-reaching implications on matters of personal, public and national security," said Rodney Boone, president of ChemTech and COO of its parent company, Loch Harris, Inc.

"Blair's initial focus will be on a system that will identify the presence of ethanol, the form of alcohol used in beverages," he said. "It is non-intrusive, does not require overt activity or cooperation on the part of the subject, yet is more accurate and fool-proof than the Breathalyzer techniques now employed by law enforcement officers.

"Such a system could monitor personal vehicles, crews on airline flight decks, air traffic controller stations, drivers of school buses, public transport and commercial vehicles, or wherever lack of judgment induced by alcohol or drugs is critical to the safety of thousands," said Boone.

The ChemTech system uses an optical beam that is aimed in the direction of a subject. The system then throws off an invisible coherent light that excites molecules from the subject. This throws off a stream of photons that Artificial Intelligence software reads in real time, evaluates the level of the substance in concentrations as small as 100 parts per billion, sounds an alarm on the spot or in a remote location, and then documents everything on a record.

The basic technology can be applied to detect other substances, Boone said, and ChemTech expects to announce other applications next week.

Blair has 35 years experience in research, development, design and implementation of new technologies in nuclear power, nuclear waste handling, large optical and radio arrays, remote sensing technologies and optical systems. He holds the four degrees: BSME, MA in Mathematics, MS in Physics, and Ph.D. in Engineering.

Henry M. Blair Consulting serves technical firms marketing on a worldwide basis with development and engineering services including government agency interface, program development, international partnerships and marketing representation, organization of local teams for international activities.

Blair is the founder of OSEM, Inc., which developed designs of astronomical telescopes for smaller observatories, emerging nations and teaching institutions. The company also developed new optical remote sensing technologies and advanced optical metrology techniques.

He serve as a consultant for the Department of Defense/Ford Aerospace from 1978 to 1983; Westinghouse Corp., Pullman Power from 1979 to 1980, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission/Westinghouse Corp. from 1983 to 1986.

He served as project engineer on the design, development and startup of the Multiple Mirror Telescope, which was the third largest in the world at that time, the first successful alt-az telescope, and the first successful multi-mirror telescope.

Gulf Canada and Roc Oil Buy Energy Project in Mongolia

DENVER - Gulf Canada Resources Limited and Roc Oil Co. Ltd. purchased all of the assets of Nescor Energy Co. The assets purchased include approximately 6 million barrels of proved oil reserves, existing infrastructure and 6.5 million highly prospective acres in the East Gobi Basin, southeastern Mongolia. The purchase cost is $14.25 million.

The acreage acquired is covered by two production sharing contracts for blocks 13 and 14. Additionally, the companies have executed contracts for two contiguous blocks, 15 and 10-North, that will increase the total area under lease to 16 million acres. Government approval for the additional blocks is expected later this quarter.

Existing reserves are confirmed by Ryder Scott engineers and are contained in the Tsagaan Els oil field. The companies expect to begin production from existing wells during the first quarter and will begin drilling additional appraisal and development wells in the second quarter.

Infrastructure purchased will support drilling, production and transportation. Oil will be transported via an existing rail system that connects the property to the China border and sold under a purchase agreement negotiated with Sinochem International Oil of China.

Based on initial evaluation of seismic data, Gulf and Roc have identified upside potential within the Tsagaan Els field and in nearby fault blocks.

Mongolia's production sharing contract terms, regional geology similar to China's productive Erlian Basin and access to China's growing demand for petroleum make this an exciting new area. J.P. Bryan, president and chief executive officer of Gulf Canada Resources, said, ``This project contains existing productive capability, significant upside by way of both exploration and exploitation, and there is a short time between investment and ultimate sales. This is an ideal profile of the worldwide projects that Gulf has been assembling over the past three years, and we think it holds the potential for adding significantly to shareholder value.''

John Doran, chief executive officer of Roc Oil Co., added, ``Because the global market for oil properties has been hot, not to say overheated, it is particularly exciting to acquire 16 million acres in a virtually unexplored, petroliferous basin with a level of infrastructure that can only be described as surprisingly good; all in a country with a wonderfully supportive government.''

Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. holds 75 percent of the joint venture and Roc Oil Co., an unlisted Australian oil company, holds 25 percent.

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Mechanical Engineering Magazine Online's Weekly News Digest is compiled from original reporting and various print and online news sources. The Digest will be updated regularly.

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