Davis-Standard marches on, extending its string of acquisitions. Davis-Standard said March 7 that it purchased Killion Extruders Inc.-the sixth acquisition in the past five years by the Pawcatuck, Conn., machinery division of Crompton & Knowles Corp.
Killion makes laboratory and midsize production extrusion equipment. Its lab-sized machines and very small-diameter medical tubing machines bring Davis-Standard new technology.
Davis-Standard reported 1994 sales of $196.2 million. Killion has sales of about $10 million a year. Terms of the acquisition, for cash, were not disclosed.
Davis-Standard President Robert Ackley said Killion ``will broaden Davis-Standard's technological capabilities ... for specialty laboratory equipment.''
Killion products include extruders for making profiles and tubing, blown and cast film and sheet, plus vacuum tanks, water troughs, pullers, winders, cutters and pelletizers.
Al Hodge, industry director of Davis-Standard's pipe, profile, tubing and sheet business, will oversee the Killion operation.
Ackley said Davis-Standard will retain Killion's headquarters in Cedar Grove, N.J. Davis-Standard already has two other New Jersey facilities - a plant in Edison that makes Sterling blow molding and extrusion machines and one in Somerville that makes Egan film equipment.
Killion employs about 50.
You need a scorecard to track Davis-Standard's acquisitions:
In 1995, it acquired the plastics and rubber extruder business of McNeil Akron Repiquet sarl in France, gaining its first European production.
In 1994, it acquired the Egan Machinery Division of John Brown Inc. and NRM Polymer Division, the extruder business of McNeil & NRM Inc.
In 1991, it acquired Sterling from APV Chemical Machinery Inc. and Clipper Machines Inc., a firm started by former Davis-Standard employees to produce wire-making equipment.
Davis-Standard holds more than 50 percent of the U.S. market for single-screw extruders.
