Business News Round Up - May 17

Editor's Note: Each week, Water & Wastes Digest will post an aggregate of business news briefs and networking news items to keep you informed on facility openings, business mergers and purchases, changes in personnel and award notifications, among others in the water and wastewater treatment industries. If you have business news briefs you would like included in this weekly round up, please email the press release, photo and a link to the post on your website to [email protected] with the subject line "Business News Round Up." One news item per company per week will be posted.

LG Sonic Launches Office Expansion in the U.S.

The launch of LG Sonic U.S. marks the first of two office expansions planned for this year. LG Sonic serves customers in the U.S., including American Water, Exelon and the Vallecitos Water District in California. The government of Florida and LG Sonic are exploring a possible collaboration for controlling algal blooms throughout the state. To accommodate this rapid growth in the U.S., LG Sonic chose to open its first office expansion, LG Sonic US, in Scranton, Penn.

“This is a great milestone for the company, our employees, and clients who will benefit from the expansion to the US,” said Yousef Yousef, CEO of LG Sonic. “With the launch of LG Sonic US, we are we are able to expand to better serve the US water treatment market.

Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork Program Gains 5 New Companies

Rockwell Automation added five new companies to its PartnerNetwork program, and two existing members expanded to serve the EMEA region. The PartnerNetwork program allows companies to face automation challenges together by providing access to a network of leading suppliers, distributors, system integrators and OEMs.

Bentley Systems Acquires Keynetix

Bentley Systems Inc. announced the acquisition of Keynetix. The addition of Keynetix software expands Bentley’s geotechnical offerings and accelerates the company’s vision of enabling subsurface digital twins for infrastructure projects and assets.

Subsurface digital twins can be vital for assessing and managing risks in infrastructure projects, and can be important for the planning, design, construction and operation of infrastructure assets. The creation and curation of subsurface digital twins involves modeling the underground environment, and utility networks, structures, and tunnels–and then analyzing and simulating the subsurface behavior.

Blue CEO Wins Accolade

Anders Jacobson, co-founder and CEO of Blue investment company, was named Sweden’s top Super Talent of 2019 by the leading Swedish business and finance weekly Veckans Affärer, which ranked him number one out of a total list of 101 finalists.

Jacobson won the accolade for his success in building the investment company from scratch in just two years into a planetary force for good with wholly-owned subsidiaries such as water tech and solutions leader, Bluewater, and a growing international portfolio of companies within water, food and health, renewable energy and sustainable material innovation.

Preload Issues Award to Sellerburg, Ind. Concrete Storage Tank

Preload LLC named the Silver Creek Water Corporation’s 2.25 million gal water storage tank, located in Sellersburg, Ind., as its 2019 Concrete Decision Award, Top Tank.

The campaign registered hundreds of online votes for 14 tanks from across the U.S., with second place going to the city of North Liberty, Iowa’s 0.75 million gal Clearwell water storage tank, and third place going to North Texas Municipal Water District’s Two 13.5 million gal water storage tanks located in Allen, Texas.

Call For Papers at PP XX in Amsterdam

The Plastic Pipes Conference Assn. issued a call for papers to be presented at its next conference and exhibition, Plastic Pipes XX. Hosted in Amsterdam at the Hotel Okura, this event will be held Sep. 21 to 23, 2020. Abstracts need to be submitted in English by Oct. 22, 2019 and additional guidelines can be found at the website.

“The main program will comprise approximately 100 presentations relating to the design and development, testing, installation and operation of plastic pipe systems,” said Sarah Patterson, co-chair and technical program manager of PPXX. “The papers will detail technical solutions or developments addressing engineering issues using plastic pipes systems or components. Also, papers identifying market trends for future growth of plastic pipes and components will be accepted for consideration.”

LEC Partners with Rock Interface

LEC announced its partnership with Rock Interface to expand the offering of iQ2’s award-winning technology to industrial clients in the Midwest. Rock Interface is a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company that specializes in providing superior industrial automation control solutions.

Infiltrator Acquires Presby Environmental Inc.

Infiltrator Water Technologies announced the acquisition of Presby Environmental Inc. Presby Environmental manufactures the Enviro-Septic, Advanced Enviro-Septic, EnviroFin and other wastewater treatment technologies.

“We are excited to be able to expand our products with the proven Presby Environmental product line,” said Roy E. Moore, Jr., president & CEO of Infiltrator Water Technologies “The family of Presby Environmental products compliments Infiltrator’s core business and helps to strengthen our industry leadership position. The combination of Infiltrator and Presby Environmental supports our vision to re-imagine and revolutionize onsite water management.”