A company controlled by the Saudi royal family has completed its $11.6 billion purchase of GE Plastics from General Electric.

The acquiring company, Saudi Basic Industries Corp., was founded by the Saudi royal family in 1976 to leverage Saudi Arabia's oil wealth. Known as SABIC, the company has invested in basic petrochemicals, fertilizers, and commodity plastics.

The former GE unit, now renamed SABIC Innovative Plastics, makes high-end engineering resins that often replace metals in engineering applications. Among its best known products are impact-resistant Lexan polycarbonate, water- and heat-resistant Noryl polyphenylene ether, high-temperature Ultem polyetherimide, and Valox thermoplastic polyester. It also makes specialty Lexan film and sheet and molding compounds.

SABIC's chemical production grew to 45.2 million metric tons in 2006, from less than 6.5 million metric tons in 1985. Along the way, it became Saudi Arabia's largest public company, although the royal family still retains a 70 percent interest in the business. It acquired the petrochemical business of Holland's DSM N.V. in 2002 and two British chemical plants owned by Huntsman International LLC in 2006.

SABIC earned $5.4 billion on sales of $23 billion in 2006 and is ahead of that pace in 2007. GE Plastics had profits of $675 million on sales of $6.6 billion last year.

SABIC ranks among the world's largest producers of commodity petrochemicals and plastics. GE Plastics engineering resins generally sell for several times the price of SABIC's commodity plastics.

Platts, a leading publisher of oil information, recognized SABIC as "Petrochemicals Company of the Year" for 2006. Platts said it based the award on strategic excellence, technological commitment, industry leadership, growth, business performance, and risk management.

The acquisition brings SABIC 10,000 new employees. SABIC retained DSM and Huntsman management. The company says GE Plastics president and CEO Brian Gladden will remain chief executive of SABIC Innovative Plastics.

Another step in the development of the next generation of U.S. space vehicles has fallen into place. NASA has signed the Boeing Co. to manufacture the upper stage of the Ares I rocket.

The contract calls for Boeing to advise NASA's design team on manufacturing issues and then to build a ground test article, three flight test units, and six production flight units. The contract, which extends through December 2016, has an estimated value of $514.7 million. A NASA spokesperson said that if all options are exercised, the contract could have a total value of just over $1 billion.

A request for proposal for key guidance, navigation, and control hardware for the Ares I closed at the end of July. An announcement of the contract award is expected later this year, possibly in December, the spokesperson said.

Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne Inc. has a $1.2 billion contract with NASA covering design, development, testing, and evaluation of the J-2X engine that will power the upper stages of the Ares I and also of the Ares V launch vehicle.

Alliant Techsystems holds a $1.8 billion contract to design and build the first stage of the Ares launch vehicles. The first stage will be an adaptation of the rocket booster currently used on the Space Shuttle and is expected to make use of hardware, facilities, and manufacturing equipment already in place.

Ares I will transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Ares V is a heavy-lift vehicle that will carry equipment needed to travel to the moon and later to Mars.

One of the major suppliers to the motor vehicle industry, ArvinMeritor Inc. of Troy, Mich., is consolidating its three North American ride control facilities into one.

The move includes the closure of its Toronto original equipment shock absorber operation, and its Chickasha, Okla., packaging and distribution center. The 700-person closure is part of a restructuring plan affecting 2,800 employees from 13 North American and European plants.

A majority of the shock absorber production will be transferred from Toronto to Queretaro, Mexico, by June 2008, with an anticipated closure by June 2009. The Chickasha site will move its packaging and distribution business to a U.S.-based third-party logistics company by April 2008.

ArvinMeritor supplies integrated systems, modules, and components to the motor vehicle industry. It employs approximately 19,000 people in 25 countries.

The strong throwing arms on baseball players are often compared to rockets. But researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have found a way to use a bit of rocket technology to improve a traditionally weak kind of arm—a prosthetic one.

Although it exists only as a lab prototype now, the artificial arm outperforms commercially available prosthetics. It can curl a 20-pound weight, about three times what current models can lift, and do it in one-quarter the time.

The Vanderbilt team's breakthrough came from tackling one of the most vexing questions for any internally powered device, the power-to-weight ratio. The batteries in currently available prosthetics limit the amount of power the arms can consume. Instead of batteries, the Vanderbilt arm is powered by burning hydrogen peroxide, a fuel used in the Space Shuttle's maneuvering rockets. When the fuel burns, it creates steam, which is channeled through the arm to open and close valves that control spring-loaded joints.

A canister about the size of a pencil can run the arm for around 18 hours.

One problem the team had to overcome was heat: Burning hydrogen peroxide produces steam at 450°F. The arm had to be designed so that the hottest parts were insulated and the surface was safe to touch. What's more, the spent steam had to be disposed of; the team found a way to vent it through a porous covering. Not only is the artificial arm warm, but it sweats.

The research was paid for by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency.

AGY of Aiken, S.C., a producer of fiberglass yarns and reinforcements used in composites, has agreed to buy two business operations from Owens Corning. The deal includes continuous filament mat manufacturing assets in Huntingdon, Pa., and marble production assets in Anderson, S.C.

Hexagon AB of Nacka Strand, Sweden, will buy all outstanding shares of CogniTens Ltd., a provider of shop floor noncontact dimensional measurement solutions. CogniTens, based in Ramat Hasharon, Israel, will be integrated into Hexagon Metrology, along with the company's other related holdings, Brown & Sharpe, DEA, Leitz, Leica Geosystems, Sheffield, Romer, PC-DMIS, and TESA.

Danville Partners LLC, a business development and private equity firm, acquired Oil Skimmers Inc., a manufacturer of oil skimming equipment. Both firms are based in Cleveland. Oil Skimmers Inc. offers customized oil skimming equipment and solutions for diverse manufacturing and industrial applications that require continuous removal of oil from process liquids and wastewater to protect the environment, promote recycling, and reduce cost.

Ground was broken by the Orlando Utilities Commission and KBR Inc. of Houston, on an advanced 285-megawatt integrated gasification combined-cycle facility near Orlando, Fla. The new generating station will be among the cleanest, most efficient coal-fueled power plants in the world, according to the parties.

Visteon Corp. of Van Buren Township, Mich., completed the sale of Visteon Powertrain Control Systems India in Chennai to Adyar River Ltd. The operation in Chennai manufactures starters and alternators for global carmakers.

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