BF Goodrich is buying Dana Corporation`s Glacier Industrial Bearings business. It plans to merge the Glacier - with annual sales of almost $100m - with its own Garlock Bearings, which makes self-lubricated polymer bearings. This will roughly triple the size of its bearings business as well as adding some 30,000 new customers around the world.

Goodrich is taking on Glacier`s 800-strong workforce and research and development and manufacturing operations in the UK, France, Germany, Slovakia and Brazil. Dana is keeping its engine bearings business.

Goodrich chief executive Dave Burner describes the acquisition as "a perfect operating and strategic fit for our industrial segment". Garlock and Glacier have had a close relationship in the past, collaborating on development and manufacturing activities.

Dana is selling its Chelsea Products division to Parker Hannifin which plans to operate it as part of its hydraulics group. Chelsea, which employs 140 people in the UK and the US, makes power take-offs and related devices for applications such as mobile rescue, fire-fighting and materials-handling applications. Its sales last year were $67m.