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In 1951 William (Bill) Moog developed the electro-hy- draulic servovalve that translates tiny electrical impulses into precise and powerful movement. Moog, an inven- tor, entrepreneur and visionary, likely knew then that valve would open the ß ood gates that would transform a small workshop in East Aurora, New York into the corporate giant Moog Inc. is today. Bill Moog, along with his brother Arthur and Lou Geyer, formed the Moog Valve Company, and their Þ rst four servo- valves were sold to Bendix Aviation. That order was followed by larger orders from Boeing and Convair. Moog had made a signiÞ cant move into the aerospace industry and has never looked back. Today, Moog Inc. employees 8,000 people around the world and has revenues of $2.6B. The Moog vision has been to di- versify and although the main focus of the company has been the aerospace industry serving the commercial aircraft indus-try, military and defense and even supplying highly sophis- ticated components for the U.S. Space program, Moog also supplies and manufactures components for a variety of indus- trial, medical, marine and energy applications. And through initiative and innovation, Moog staff have created new prod- ucts for these various industries that have been both customer speciÞ c and for a broader based customer use. The diversiÞ cation has led to MoogÕs acquisition around the world of leading companies producing top quality products that would complement and expand the various Moog product lines. Such was the case with Focal Technologies of Halifax, a marine product company, which in 2005 became part of the Moog Components Group and now the base of its marine op- erations. ÒThis facility is almost 100% marine. Nearly every- thing we do here is marine and energy solutions,Ó said Moog FocalÕs Managing Director Michael Glister, who explained how Focal became a good Þ t for Moog. Focal actually started as part of the Nova Scotia Research Foundation, said Glister. With a private owner, the company grew and settled in Burnside, an industrial park across the har- bor from Halifax. In 1999 Focal was sold to the U.S.-based Kaydon Corp.ÒThey were looking for slip ring manufacturers,Ó said Glis- ter. ÒThey didnÕt really understand that although we made slip rings we are very much a marine company. Being a slip ring manufacturer was not our main objective.Ó In 2005 Kaydon sold Focal to Moog. ÒThey were looking for diversiÞ cation, adding technologies that they thought were adjacent to their own and synergistic with their own. So we are part of Moog but still keep the Focal brand name because it has a very strong brand identity within the marine business. So we are Moog Focal and a business segment of the Moog Components Group,Ó said Glister. When Focal came out of the Nova Scotia Research Founda- tion, its concentration was in a couple of areas, said Glister. One of those areas was the use of Þ ber optics for marine and subsea applications and its Þ rst application was a towed array for the Canadian submarines. The other area was developing an electrical slip ring for marine use. They would typically be deployed in the winch of some type of marine system. Glister offered this example. ÒIf a ship was to deploy something underwater, it would tail out from a winch. It would have a situation where the cable coming into the winch would be static but having to convert to the rotary side of that cable winch as it deploys the cable into the ocean. Our devices initially were mainly to convert any type of power or signal from the stationary world to the Corporate Climber An employee works on the production of a large electrical slip ring at Moog Focal?s Nova Scotia facility. MOOG MOOG By Tom Peters From tiny electrical impulses grows a $2.6B giant From tiny electrical impulses grows a $2.6B giant September 201374 MTRMTR #7 (66-81).indd 74MTR #7 (66-81).indd 748/26/2013 12:04:09 PM8/26/2013 12:04:09 PM
