Lord Corporation Forms Strategic Alliance With Delphi Automotive Systems

Lord's Magnetorheological Fluid Finds Commercial Application in MagneRide(TM)

    CARY, N.C., March 5 Lord Corporation, the world's leading
supplier of magnetorheological, or magnetically responsive, (MR) fluid, has
signed an agreement with Delphi Automotive Systems LLC, a global leader in
automotive component and systems technology, to supply Lord's proprietary
Rheonetic(TM) magnetically responsive fluid for a new generation of
controllable shock absorbers Delphi has designed.

    Delphi's controlled suspension MagneRide(TM) shocks, representing the
automobile industry's most advanced variable damping technology, will use MR
fluid-based dampers to improve both ride and handling.  Other benefits include
improved wheel control, isolation as well as transient roll control.

    "The MR technology in MagneRide provides the missing link to complete
chassis integration, said Bill Gillespie, Delphi's director of chassis systems
engineering.  "Conventional valve-based systems don't have the response, the
bandwidth, the authority or the turn-up ratio of MagneRide."

    Under the four-year contract Lord will provide virtually all MR fluid to
be used in the Delphi shocks.  The newly designed shocks are scheduled to be
included on production vehicles in 2002 and 2003.

    "We've worked very closely with Delphi to develop our fluid technology to
meet their exceedingly high performance standards", said Gerry Estes, vice
president and general manager of the Materials Division of Lord Corporation.
"As one of Delphi's few strategic suppliers, we will continue to work closely
with them to support their leadership in the application of this remarkable
technology."

    MR fluids are produced by suspending magnetically soft particles in a
hydrocarbon or silicon fluid.  Lord Corporation worked with Delphi to produce
a fluid with a relatively low viscosity that is forced to flow through a
magnetized opening to provide optimized performance for damper pistons.
Delphi is the first high volume automotive shock manufacturer to incorporate
MR technology into its products.

    Lord has commercialized MR technology in a broad range of applications,
from automotive suspension and vibration control, to consumer appliances, to
medical prosthetics, to industrial pneumatics to seismic and wind vibration
mitigation.