Simrit Announces the Opening of a State-of-the-Art O-ring Facility in Queretaro, Mexico

PLYMOUTH, Mich., Nov. 4 -- Simrit, the industrial sealing division of Freudenberg-NOK, is announcing the opening of a new state-of-the- art O-ring manufacturing facility in Queretaro, Mexico, featuring world-class injection molding and vision inspection systems. Compression molding will also be an integral part of this new 54,000-square-foot facility, which employs approximately 150 associates and assumed manufacturing from the company's Cuautla, Mexico facility beginning Nov. 1, 2003.

The new facility is part of Freudenberg-NOK's ongoing initiative to create focused factories that are dedicated to specific processes and products. As a focused factory, the emphasis at the Queretaro facility will be to produce O- rings and custom molded shapes for Simrit, and will carry quality certifications such as ISO-9001/TS and QS9000.

The company's aerospace O-rings and Six Sigma quality O-rings will continue to be produced in Santa Ana, Calif. and LaGrange, Ga., respectively. Oil seal production will continue at the Cuautla, Mexico facility.

"These focused factories will enable us to be more responsive to our customers, improve time-to-market and meet industry-specific standards and customer-specific requirements," said Vinay Nilkanth, vice president and general manager of Simrit's Aerospace & O-ring division. "This strategic initiative will help to cut product development time, simplify production, reduce plant complexity and ultimately provide our customers with high- quality, value-added products."

The Queretaro site was chosen due to the area's world-class infrastructure and its proximity to the NAFTA highway network and 12 universities, which can offer a qualified and stable engineering talent pool and a highly-educated work force.

The majority of salaried employees at the new facility -- including engineers, operations management, quality and administrative personnel, along with key factory supervisors -- will be transferred from their current Cuautla location.

"The state-of-the-art Queretaro facility was designed specifically with our industrial customers in mind," said Bruce Warren, Freudenberg-NOK's General Manager of the O-ring division. "By combining the best facility, the best technology and our lean expertise, Simrit can provide on-time delivery performance, zero-defect quality and cost-effective solutions."

A market leader in the aerospace, industrial, consumer and agriculture/construction market segments, Simrit draws from more than 150 years of experience and well-known brand names including Freudenberg(R), NOK(R), Disogrin(R), Merkel(R) and International Seal(R).

The Simrit Division is based at Freudenberg-NOK's headquarters in Plymouth, Mich. Freudenberg-NOK is part of the Freudenberg and NOK Group Companies, which have total annual sales of more than $7 billion. The global Freudenberg and NOK Group offers an extensive portfolio of precision-molded products for the aerospace, appliance, automotive, business machine, fluid power, marine, medical, off-highway equipment and recreational vehicle markets.

For more information, visit the Simrit website at www.simrit.com .