Eaton Reaches Agreement to Buy Industrial Cylinder Business

IMC’s cylinder business is headquartered in Rockford, Illinois, and sells products to industrial equipment manufacturers under the Hydro-Line, Air-Dro and Hydrowa brand names. The business had sales of $63 million in 1999.

"This acquisition demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the global industrial marketplace," said William F. Sackrider, vice president—Eaton Hydraulics. "Hydro-Line is a significant manufacturer of industrial cylinders in the United States and will greatly expand our presence in the North American marketplace, as well as provide immediate entrée to European markets.

"Not only do the Hydro-Line, Air-Dro and Hydrowa brand names enjoy an extremely positive reputation in the markets they serve, these businesses are an excellent fit in complementing our existing Vickers cylinder business and will permit us to grow from a position of strength," continued Sackrider. "Equally important, this acquisition will now permit us to make available to our customers a broader selection of single-source products that can be easily integrated into a complete Eaton system."

Industrial cylinders are used by machine and equipment builders to transfer and apply fluid power in applications that range from automobile production to large hydroelectric projects and offshore drilling platforms.

The IMC facilities being acquired by Eaton employ 450, and are located in Rockford, Illinois; Reno, Nevada; and Decatur, Alabama; in the United States, and in The Netherlands and Italy, in Europe. They will become a part of Eaton Hydraulics Industrial Division, headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Eaton’s Hydraulics Operations manufactures a wide variety of pumps, motors, controls, steering units, valves, hydrostatic transmissions and other products for global industrial and mobile markets, and is part of Eaton’s $2.5 billion Fluid Power Group.