Bettcher Industries announces the appointment of Robert R. Bolin as Regional Manager for its Whizard Trimmer and Airshirz pneumatic scissors product lines. In this position, Bolin will be responsible for managing the sales and service activities of Bettcher Industries' customers located in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific states, as well as Texas and the Southwest. A 20-year veteran in the red meat industry, Bolin holds a B.S. degree in Animal Sciences.

Kemin Foods, L.C., has appointed Cindy Tjeerdsma as the Marketing Communications Specialist, for the Des Moines-based international manufacturer and marketer of FloraGLO brand lutein. Tjeerdsma will be responsible for maintaining internal company communications. She will develop marketing collateral material and manage content on the company's Web site. Aimee Seberg has been appointed market analyst of food and beverage. Seberg will be responsible for gathering market information to aid Kemin Foods in its expansion into the food and beverage industry.

Sara Lee Corp. is acquiring FHS Inc., a privately held holding company that owns Chandler, Minn.-based Huisken Meats Inc., a meat precessor and a leader in the manufacture of irradiated fround beef products, and Trail's Bast Snacks, Inc., the No. 4 U.S. producer of meat snacks and beef jerky. FHS, headquartered in Chandler, Minn., generated more than $50 million in sales in 2000. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Working in the construction of industrial plants and fabrication of structural steel, Lurgi PSI Inc. recently passed the significant milestone of exceeding 2,000,000 manhours without a lost time accident. It has taken almost 3 years to reach this point, and includes manhours from all operations within the company. This achievement reinforces our mission to provide a safe working environment for our employees, contractors, and clients.

Omron's System Integration group recently attained System Integrator Partner certification with Intellution, a provider of industrial HMI/SCADA software, and Certified Partner status with Microsoft. With these new certifications, the System Integration group is being presented with new business opportunities and is working to provide Intellution and Microsoft as a solution in customer's system integration projects. As an Intellution Ssytem Integrator Partner, Omron implements Intellution products as part of a fully integrated solution, customized for specific applications.

A new analytical balance from Mettler-Toledo helped the Columbus-based company win a distinguished R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine. The Mettler-Toledo AX is a high-resolution analytical balance with an extremely wide weighing range, from 2.1g to 510g. For ease of use it employs a unique touch screen and hands-free draft shield operation and allows up to eight individual user configurations to be stored. The R&D Awards, established in 1963, recognize the 100 most technologically significant new products of the year.