Swedish bearing giant SKF has acquired QPM Aerospace's metallic rod business. The manufacturing site is located in Monroe close to Seattle in the US.
Metallic rods are used in various aerospace applications such as mechanism actuation, airplane structures and equipment suspensions.
SKF's metallic rod activities are located in Saint Vallier, South of Lyon in France, and its existing customer base is mainly European. It supplies products to Airbus, Dassault and Eurocopter.
Like SKF, QPM is also a supplier to Boeing and is qualified to supply products to Airbus.
SKF's believes that the US acquisition will provide it with a platform from which to grow its metallic rod business in North America.
Comment: The UK is closer to deindustrialisation than reindustrialisation
"..have been years in the making" and are embedded in the actors - thus making it difficult for UK industry to move on and develop and apply...