SKF has acquired US-based Precision Balancing & Analyzing (PB&A), situated in Mentor, Ohio, and Monitek Australia, situated in Brisbane, Australia. SKF is paying 6.5 million euros in total for the two companies.

PB&A specializes in the repair and upgrading of machine tool spindle mechanisms. It has 40 employees and annual sales of 5.5 million
euros. PB&A’s activities complement SKF’s spindle service operations and will improve geographical coverage of the US market.

SKF’s global certified spindle service network has now increased to 17 service centres, covering most industrialized manufacturing areas worldwide.

Monitek is a leading predictive maintenance services company in Australia. It is a supplier of high-quality vibration monitoring and wear debris analysis to the mining industry. Monitek has 29 employees and annual sales of 2.5 million euros.

The acquisition of Monitek strengthens SKF’s position as a leading provider of reliability ser-vices to the mining industry.

SKF has also acquired John Crane Safematic Oy in Finland, a lubrication system business. The company is headquartered and has its
manufacturing operations in Muurame, Finland, and sales offices in Sweden, Germany, the United States and Brazil. It has 127 employees.

Sales in 2005 totalled 25 million euros. The acquired business will complement SKF’s existing lubrication systems business, which is part of the SKF Group’s Industrial Division, through its product and segment focus as well as its geographical presence. SKF is paying 22.9 million euros for the company.

In Austria, SKF has acquired 100 percent of shares in Economos Austria GmbH from Salzer Holding GmbH. Economos is an Austrian industrial seals company that manufactures hydraulic and pneumatic seals for the oil and gas, food and beverage, pulp and paper, mining and steel industries. Economos will be a part of SKF’s Sealing Solutions unit within the Automotive Division.

Economos has 805 employees. Sales for 2005 were close to 70 million euros. SKF is paying 67 million euros for the company.

Economos has a global presence, with Western Europe as its main market. The company is headquartered in Judenburg, Austria. Economos operates through more than 20 subsidiaries around the world and has an extensive distributor network. Economos sealing and engineering plastics solutions will strengthen SKF’s market position in industrial seals.