2/6/16

By The Editorial Board
The Fresno Bee

Burger King's tax avoidance scheme was stomach turning. Pfizer's gambit gave us a big headache.

But this latest tax-skipping scam by Johnson Controls is enough to drive anyone bonkers, not just Bernie Sanders.

The auto parts manufacturer announced in late January that it is merging with Tyco and moving its headquarters from Wisconsin to Ireland. That's where Tyco is based, but it also has a much lower corporate tax rate than the U.S. That sneaky maneuver, called an inversion, will save the combined company at least $150 million a year in taxes.

Read the rest of this piece here.

 

Honeywell and UTC are key suppliers on Airbus aircraft

 

Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

2/23/16

By Alexander Soule
Stamford Advocate

United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes told CNBC Tuesday morning that he initiated talks in April 2015 with Honeywell CEO David Cote about merging the two companies, continuing discussions in May and July last year before concluding regulators would not allow a combination without major divestments that would impact the merits of a merger.

CNBC reported on Monday that the two conglomerates had been in talks about a merger, with Farmington-based UTC releasing a statement on Monday evening saying exploratory talks had occurred on "collaborative" options for the companies, without explicitly stating it had approached Honeywell about a merger.

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2/10/16

By Eric Hand
Science

Lingering atmospheric pollutants and a blast of frigid air have carved an unusually deep hole in Earth's protective ozone layer over the Arctic, and it threatens to get deeper. Atmospheric scientists are analyzing data from weather balloons and satellites for clues to how the ozone will fare when sunlight-a third factor in ozone loss-returns to the Arctic in the spring. But they are already worrying about how extra ultraviolet light might affect humans and ecosystems below and wondering whether climate change will make such Arctic holes more common or severe.

Record cold temperatures in the Arctic stratospheric ozone layer, 15 to 35 kilometers up, are the proximate cause for this year's losses, because they help to unleash ozone-destroying chemicals. "This winter has been stunning," says Markus Rex, an atmospheric chemist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam, Germany. By next week, about 25% of the Arctic's ozone will be destroyed, he says.

Click here to read the full article.

 

2/9/15

By Erin Dooley
ABC News

Lithium ion batteries power our phones, laptops, and cameras -- but if handled improperly, they also have the power to potentially bring down a plane.

Following a series of disquieting tests, the FAA today issued a safety alert warning airlines that transporting these batteries as cargo carries the "risk of a catastrophic hull loss."

Lithium ion battery fires can lead to a "catastrophic explosion," which fires suppression systems are "incapable of preventing," the FAA said in the alert.

FAA video of lithium ion batteries on fire under FRC

Read the rest of the article here.

 

2/11/15

By Bart Jansen
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- A House panel rejected a proposal to allow the transportation secretary to regulate shipments of lithium batteries on aircraft, despite the threat of catastrophic fire, in order to wait for international regulations.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted 25-33 against adding the amendment to legislation governing the Federal Aviation Administration.

The current policy, which Congress approved in 2012 and would extend in the latest bill, prevents the FAA from adopting tougher standards than the International Civil Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations that sets policy. The goal was to have all countries agree on rules for international cargo shipments.

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Tyco to expand its Irish workforce to over 500 over next two years

 

2/5/16

Your Oil and Gas News

3M Company and 3M United Kingdom PLC today announced that the States of Guernsey dismissed its claims against 3M Company and 3M United Kingdom PLC, with prejudice. A trial, which pertained to the purchase, use and disposal of 3M Light Water Brand Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) by Guernsey Airport, began on Jan. 18, 2016, in the High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court, London. The States of Guernsey also agreed to make a substantial contribution toward 3M's legal costs.

"We are pleased to resolve this dispute on favorable terms for 3M," said Jean Bennington Sweeney, vice president, 3M Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability. "After a full airing of the facts and circumstances through the testimony of the witnesses, it is unmistakably clear that 3M acted responsibly in the production and sale of its AFFF products. Most important, the evidence presented shows the presence of perfluorochemicals (PFCs) on Guernsey presents no harm to the community or the environment."

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2/11/16

Tyco Fire Protection Products (Tyco) received isolated reports of Control Heads failing to operate during the commissioning of systems. We discovered an issue with the Spring Plate located in the Control Head that could interfere with other moving parts within the Control Head which could result in the system failing to activate.

Once aware of the issue, Tyco implemented appropriate corrective actions including containment and rework of the Control Heads.
 
Further testing by Tyco found the affected Control Heads could pass commissioning but the Spring Plate could seize over time. Therefore, Tyco is implementing a field remediation program for affected units. Affected units were sold between January 1, 2015 and September 8, 2015.

See the rest of the statement here.

 

2/11/16

New Britain Herald

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Two Indiana plants that make products for the heating, ventilating and air conditioning industry are shifting their manufacturing operations to Mexico in moves that will cost 2,100 workers their jobs, company officials announced Wednesday.

Carrier Corp. said it would shutter its Indianapolis plant employing 1,400 workers and move its manufacturing to Mexico. The plant's workers would be laid off over three years starting in 2017.

Read the rest of this article here.

 

2/17/16

Business Wire

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Red Hawk Fire & Security LLC, a leader in fire, life safety and electronic security services, today announced its first acquisition since becoming an independent company with the purchase of Systems Sales Corporation. The purchase strengthens the company's existing fire and security services operations in New Jersey, Philadelphia and Delaware.

Red Hawk was formed as an independent, unified fire and electronic security services brand with a national footprint to serve commercial customers after the acquisition by a Comvest Partners sponsored private investment fund of the U.S. fire and security operations of United Technologies Corporation (UTC) in April of 2012. Since then, Red Hawk has focused efforts on successfully growing its commercial client base in the government, healthcare and education markets.

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12/15/15

By Mark L Robin
International Fire Protection Magazine

The occurrence of a fire in a mission critical facility can lead to business interruption costs exceeding tens of thousands of dollars per minute in the case of datacenters or online businesses. According to a 2013 Ponemon Institute report, the average cost of data center downtime is $7908 USD per minute - a cost of almost $155,000 USD per day of downtime. The total cost of downtime is not limited to revenue losses, but can ultimately include productivity losses, customer disruption, reputation damage, isolation and repair costs, loss of data and results, and lawsuits.

The high value and sensitivity of the electronic equipment found in mission critical facilities, combined with the consequences of system interruption, make fire protection a crucial component of any data center risk assessment.

Click here to read the full story.

 

Figure 1. A photo of the 1 m wide model tunnel in scale 1:10.

Fire Safety Search

In the past decades, research on tunnel fire has mainly focused on design fires and smoke control in longitudinally ventilated tunnels. There is a clear lack of research on detailed ceiling jet characteristics in tunnel fires. In open fires, we can easily use established equations to calculate the flame height, gas temperature and gas velocity as a function of height. However, in tunnel fires, there are no similar tools to estimate these key parameters. The investigation of ceiling jet characteristics will give us valuable information about, e.g. the flame length and the possible fire spread, which indicate the hazards of any given tunnel fire, and are the key parameters in the design of a tunnel fire safety system.

Theoretical analyses and experimental work were carried out to investigate the ceiling jet characteristics in tunnel fires including a specific focus on the initial one-dimensional conditions for the ceiling jets. The key characteristic parameters focused on are flame lengths, ceiling jet velocity, ceiling jet mass flow rate, gas temperatures, radiation and fire spread.

Click here to read the full article.

 

 

REUTERS/Rebecca Cook DuPont and Dow plan more cost cuts in advance of their merger later this year.

2/22/15

By Joseph N. DiStefano
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Battered by years of corporate departures, Delaware elected officials bragged as if they'd won the lottery when DuPont Co. and Dow Chemical Co. said the new corporation they are forming to sell pesticides and seeds will have world headquarters not at its Iowa-based crop seeds group, nor at Dow's Indianapolis pesticides business, but at DuPont's Chestnut Run office complex near Wilmington.

Yet it's not clear this will add any Delaware jobs. DuPont and Dow plan more cost cuts in advance of their merger later this year.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

 

12/5/14

Fireline

Recently, a facility manager made a comment stating that fires in data centers are rare. In response to these naïve comments, Onward and Upward decided to highlight three recent data center fires to show that these fires do happen more often than some may believe. This is to show those who work in these centers that data center fires do occur, and preparation is essential to help keep everyone safe.

1. February 18th, 2014- This is the first example of data center fires highlighted by Onward and Upward. In this case, a failed transient-voltage surge suppressor located in the basement of the Hoover State Office Building caused damage and smoke. While the TVSS was unused at the time, it was still fully powered. When the TVSS failed, an employee was able to activate a release station manually, which then activated about 2,400 pounds of "FM-200 clean fire-suppressing agent" to be discharged on the basement level along with the floor above the data center. Once this was trigged, power to equipment was shut off by an emergency circuit. Due to the fire sprinkler and alarm system installed within the center, the fire was extinguished by the time local fire authorities arrived on the scene.

The rest of the article can be read here.

 

Read the rest of the information on this conference here.

 

2/4/16

3M

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its recommendations for U.S. federal agencies to help them purchase more environmentally sustainable products and services in accordance with Executive Order 13693.

On September 25, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its recommendations for purchasing environmentally preferable products and services to the U.S. federal government, one of the world's largest purchasers. This action is aimed at helping federal agencies purchase more environmentally sustainable products and services in accordance with Executive Order 13693, while reducing public health and environmental impacts associated with the federal government's extensive supply chain.

Read more about this here.

 

2/19/16

World Oil

PRINCETON, New Jersey -- Tyco International has announced the formation of Tyco Gas & Flame Detection, a new operating brand of Tyco Life Safety Products division. Under this new brand, Tyco intends to be the global solutions provider of choice for all entities with gas and flame detection needs.

The launch of Tyco Gas & Flame Detection represents the culmination of integration activities since Tyco's acquisition of Industrial Safety Technologies (IST) in February 2015. The combination of IST companies-Detcon, Oldham, Gas Measurement Instruments (GMI) and Simtronics-together with the gas and flame detection portfolio of Scott Safety makes Tyco Gas & Flame Detection one of the largest global manufacturers of innovative gas and flame detection products. The business is well positioned to provide customers with a complete range of smarter, safer solutions and services.

Read the full article here.

 

Firefighters battled this raging Amazon fire at a data center.

1/9/15

By Jose Pagliery
CNN

A large fire lit up the roof of an Amazon data center that's still under construction in a Virginia suburb outside Washington, D.C.

No one was hurt in the blaze, according to the local fire department, which was able to put out the fire in under an hour.

Amazon said the facility was in the early stages of becoming an Amazon Web Services cloud computing center. The company noted that the incident didn't impact company production or shipping.

The nondescript building will one day be one of Amazon's massive data centers -- the kind that keep websites running and store computer information for companies.

Click here to read the entire story.

 

Senior Airmen Nash Camden, Matthew Mayo, Blake Destasio and Tech. Sgt. Kyle Martin, left to right respectively, pose for a photo after an awards ceremony at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, Feb. 16, 2016. The four Airmen were part of a group of nine maintainers from the 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron who were recognized for their efforts when they responded to a fire caused by a hydraulic fluid leak on an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter after it returned from a sortie December 2015. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Kentavist P. Brackin/Released)

2/18/16

By Staff Sgt. Kentavist Brackin
DVIDS

Undisclosed Location - Four Airmen assigned to the 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron were awarded Air Force Commendation Medals during a ceremony, Feb. 16.

Air Force Commendation Medals are awarded to armed services personnel who distinguish themselves by meritorious achievement and service while serving in any capacity with the Air Force.

Senior Airmen Nash Camden, Blake Destasio and Matthew Mayo and Tech. Sgt. Kyle Martin received the medals for their efforts Dec. 2, 2015, when they, along with five other maintainers, responded to a fire caused by a hydraulic fluid leak on an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter after it returned to base.

Finish reading the article here.

 

2/11/16

By Associated Press

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- A burst sprinkler in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's new library has caused water damage to two-thirds of the half-million books, and has led to the basement floor being closed to the public.

University spokesman Kirk Englehardt said that UTC officials are talking with workers about ways to repair the floor so the basement may be reopened by the end of the month. The malfunction occurred in late January.

Read the rest of the story here.

 

These are the stories in our last issue that got the most clicks. If you haven't already, check them out!

• Johnson Controls, Tyco to Merge in Inversion Deal 
• January 2016 Video of the Month: Plane Catches Fire on Runway at Fort Lauderdale Airport 
• Is Time Running Out for HFCs? 
• Details of Johnson Controls and Tyco Merger 
• Hillary Clinton Slams Tyco/Johnson Inversion