Astronics Corporation was awarded a $6 million exclusive contract by 3Oe Scientific to manufacture the Iggy hand rinsing device at its Waukegan, Illinois facility. The device uses aqueous ozone technology for hand hygiene.

Harpak-ULMA announced the relocation of its global headquarters to a new, significantly expanded facility in Taunton, Massachusetts, featuring a Customer Experience Center, Innovation Lab, and expanded production areas.

Italian packaging machinery makers OCME and Robopac, both family-led, have signed an agreement to pursue joint growth and internationalization, with OCME to be led by Carlotta Gatteschi, Valentina Aureli and Enrico Aureli. The article does not state the deal terms or value.

Precision Swiss Products, Inc. will invest more than $9.3 million to locate its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Brunswick County, North Carolina, creating 125 new jobs. The facility will produce high precision parts for aerospace, medical device and semiconductor industries.

Walinga Inc. received $1.125 million from the Ontario government's South Western Development Fund to support a $7.5 million investment in expanding its facility and purchasing new equipment to produce two new agricultural products: the milinator and the barge unloader.

Nordmeccanica, a manufacturer of flexible packaging machinery, is building a new greenfield factory in Piacenza, Italy, with an investment of EUR 3 million. The facility will add 3,000 square meters and create 30 new jobs, with production expected to start in early 2022.

Chemosvit Folie has invested in a new Miraflex M8 flexo printing machine from Windmöller & Hölscher for its packaging film production. The machine was installed in April 2021 and will be in full operation from July 2021.

ROBOTCOM & FA.COM (R&F), managing company of Team Cross FA, established a digital factory in Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture on June 28, 2021. The facility includes a machining factory and assembly factory with a total floor area of 2,700 square meters, featuring state-of-the-art robot and IoT systems for unmanned 24-hour operation.

LiuGong began construction of a loader lighthouse factory in Liuzhou, Guangxi, with 110,000 sqm of new buildings and 90,000 sqm of renovated space, aiming for an annual capacity of 30,000 high-end loaders.

Bird Construction Inc. was awarded a three-year contract with a two-year extension option for mechanical and electrical maintenance services for the North West Redwater Partnership, valued up to $75 million.

Toyo Machine Metal will build a new factory in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, for injection molding machines, with an investment of 1 billion yen. Operations are scheduled to start in April 2022.

Kyokuto Sanki will build a new factory in Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, to manufacture custom industrial machinery including lithium-ion battery production equipment. The investment is 1.8 billion yen, and the building will have a total floor area of 5,735 square meters.

Hardinge Inc. is investing $4 million to replace its heat-treating department at its Elmira, New York facility. The investment is part of a broader move to bring manufacturing back from Asia and includes hiring 50 employees company-wide, with 20 in Elmira.

Shimadzu's Chinese subsidiary Tianjin Shimadzu Hydraulic has built a new factory in the Xiqing Economic-Technological Development Area of Tianjin to make hydraulic gear pumps and control valves for forklifts. The $20 million plant has capacity of 500,000 pumps and 200,000 valves a year, with full operation planned for October 2021.

PTG Holroyd received a £1.3 million order for a Zenith 400 helical profile grinding machine from an engineering academy in East China. The machine is scheduled to ship in summer 2022.

Yantai Hartford Compressor Digital Factory, the first digital native factory for complex discrete compressors in the global industrial refrigeration and air conditioning industry, held its opening ceremony on June 26, 2021.

China Railway Construction Heavy Industry (CRCC Heavy Industry) broke ground on an intelligent manufacturing project for large-diameter tunnel boring machines (TBMs) in Changsha, Hunan. The project involves an investment of about CNY 1.09 billion and will build 16,000 sqm and 19,000 sqm workshops.

Comisa acquired a 10,200 sqm property in Pisogne, Italy, adjacent to its Costa Volpino site, to increase production capacity by 2.5x, including new warehouse, logistics, assembly, storage, and office areas.

Lectra announced the acquisition of Neteven, a SaaS platform provider, to enhance its responsiveness to fashion customers' needs.

Rockwell Automation has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Plex Systems, a cloud-native smart manufacturing software platform, from Francisco Partners for $2.22 billion in cash. The acquisition was announced on June 25, 2021.

Global Compression Services opened a new 5,000 sq ft machine shop in Washington, Pennsylvania, in the Marcellus Shale region to repair and machine natural gas compressor parts. It is part of the company's planned expansion into the Marcellus and Utica market.

Simmons Machine Tool Corporation is acquiring Hegenscheidt-MFD Corporation to form NSH USA Corporation. The new entity will serve North American customers in railway, aerospace, defense, automotive, and renewable energy industries.

Lesjöfors, through its subsidiary Metrol Springs in the UK, is investing in automated CNC machinery, including a twin gantry robotic loader and automated gas spring charging and testing equipment, to increase production capacity and efficiency.

Matex, a manufacturer of machinery for coated and laminated fabrics, has opened a second plant (Stabilimento 2) near its headquarters in Italy. The 2,500 square meter facility will produce steelworks and ovens, increasing overall production capacity.

Lifco has signed an agreement to acquire a majority of the shares in Next Hydraulics Srl, a manufacturer of telescopic cranes and stabilizers based in Boretto, Italy. The company had net sales of approximately EUR 21 million in 2020 and 43 employees.

Howden has acquired Maintenance Partners NV, a Belgian provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul services for industrial compressors, blowers and steam turbines. The transaction closed on April 30, 2021.

GTI Spindle Technology divested its Predictive Technology division to B&D Industrial of Macon, Georgia, and signed a reseller and distribution agreement for the technology.

Doosan Bobcat completed a $26 million expansion of its Litchfield, Minnesota facility, nearly tripling its size from 70,000 to 200,000 square feet. The project started in September 2019 and was completed in January 2021, adding new assembly lines and creating over 100 jobs.

The State of Bavaria is investing EUR 15 million in the KI.FABRIK project at the Technical University of Munich to develop a prototype AI-based factory by 2030, with a consortium including BMW, Franka Emika, Linde Material Handling, Reactive Robotics, TQ-Systems and Wittenstein.

Ficep UK has supplied a new automated saw line to Contiga AS at its Roverud facility in Norway. The system includes a Ficep Orient CNC-controlled drilling and thermal coping line, and is expected to improve production processing time by up to 40%.

Guangzhou KDT Machinery Co., Ltd. (KDT) successfully bid for a 190-mu (12.7-hectare) plot in Shunde, Foshan, for its first-phase project with a total investment of CNY 2 billion. The project will build a smart furniture equipment production and sales headquarters, producing five-axis machining centers and automated flexible wood door and window production lines.

Yuhuan CNC signed a procurement contract with Wuxi Green Point (Green Point Technology (Wuxi) Co., Ltd.) for YH2M8590C CNC multi-station polishing machines, with a contract value of 61.3183 million yuan (including tax).

Chicago-based Milton Industries, a pneumatic and hydraulic accessory maker, announced it is acquiring National-Spencer and the Zee Line brand of lube and fluid management products. National-Spencer has facilities in Wichita, Kansas, Spencer, Iowa, and Stockton, California.

Marotta Controls, a New Jersey aerospace and defense supplier, announced it has integrated additive manufacturing into its services and validated it with a patented selective laser sintering method for a manifold valve.

Kubota Farm Machinery Europe invested €1.8 million in a new welding line at its Bierne, France plant to assemble tractor cabins on-site, replacing imports from Japan. The line started production in June 2021 and created about 10 jobs.

STADLER invested in two HELLER 4-axis machining centres (H 2000 and H 5000) to increase component capacity by 60% and bring outsourced production back in-house. The investment was decided in 2019 and commissioned after one year.

Tecmur announced a $10 million investment to expand its metal-mechanics plants, with $6 million allocated to the Matamoros facility. The expansion is expected to begin in August 2021.

Zhongmi Holding said it plans to buy production equipment for its Riji Seal and Huayang Seal units to expand capacity, with about 15 million yuan of new investment. The added capacity is expected to generate 100-200 million yuan in annual output value.

Green Plains Inc. has selected Fagen, Inc. as the general contractor to construct and install Fluid Quip Technologies' MSC system across its biorefining platform. Construction will begin at Obion, Mount Vernon, and Central City locations, with completion expected over 9-12 months.

Maximl won a $1 million contract from Indian Oil Corporation to digitize last-mile operations for turnaround processes across all nine of its refineries over two years.

ABB has been contracted by Arctic Paper Grycksbo to install a new drive and automation system for Winder 10 at its mill in Grycksbo, Sweden, to improve productivity and safety.

Toscotec will supply an AHEAD 2.2S tissue machine to Saudi Paper Group's Dammam mill in Saudi Arabia. The line has a capacity of over 30,000 tons per year and is scheduled to start up in Q4 2022.

Liwei Laser is investing in a new CNC machine tool production base in Xintai, Shandong, China. Phase 1 covers 33,000 m² with 23,000 m² of workshops; a 13,000 m² processing center is set to open by end of June 2021. Capacity is expected to increase by over 150%.

Kobe Steel and Miura Co. concluded final agreements under which Miura invests in Kobe Steel's subsidiary Kobelco Compressors and Kobe Steel invests in Miura, forming a capital and business alliance in standard air compressors.

Beckwood Press Company was awarded a contract by Metal Forming Industries to manufacture a 200-ton hydraulic forming press for making copper components used in the utility industry. Delivery is scheduled for later this year.

Urban Stacke Industri AB, through its subsidiary Stacke Hydraulik AB, acquired component manufacturer Hellstens Mekaniska AB in Väderstad, Sweden, to strengthen its position in hydraulic cylinders.

Hanil Can, South Korea's largest metal can manufacturer, signed a non-binding agreement to purchase a production line worth about CNY340 million from Suzhou SLAC Precision Equipment, with a USD5 million earnest payment made.

Supreme Integrated Technology (SIT) of Harahan, Louisiana, has acquired the assets of C.S. Controls, a Houma, Louisiana manufacturer of marine systems such as steering gears, cranes and winches. C.S. Controls joins Employee Owned Holdings.

SAMSON USA, headquartered in Baytown, Texas, has completed installation of a Flexible Manufacturing System with 2 horizontal machining centers and a 24-pallet robotic loading system built by MCM of Italy, increasing its manufacturing capacity.

MARCO has been selected to supply and install the hydraulic system, deck machinery and fishing equipment for a new 80-metre tuna vessel for Grupomar, to be built at Astilleros Armón Gijón in Spain. The vessel can store 1,200 tonnes of fish.