Federal-Mogul Corporation is an American developer, manufacturer and supplier of products for automotive, commercial, aerospace, marine, rail and off-road vehicles; and industrial, agricultural and power-generation applications. It was acquired in February 2022 by

Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global private-equity firm. It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of March 31, 2022, the company had $512 billion of assets under management, ...

. Federal-Mogul operated two independent business divisions, Federal-Mogul Powertrain and Federal-Mogul Motorparts. The two divisions each had their own chief executive officer.

History

Origins

Federal-Mogul was founded in Detroit in 1899 by J. Howard Muzzy and Edward F. Lyon as the Muzzy-Lyon Company. Muzzy and Lyon went into business together producing mill supplies and rubber goods. In addition, the partners formed a subsidiary called the Mogul Metal Company where they launched various bearing innovations. Muzzy Lyon began producing bearings made from their own

Babbitt metal Babbitt metal or bearing metal is any of several alloys used for the bearing surface in a plain bearing. The original Babbitt alloy was invented in 1839 by Isaac Babbitt in Taunton, Massachusetts, United States. He disclosed one of his alloy recip ...

called ''Mogul'', an

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient time ...

and copper. The product was trademarked under the names of "Mogul" and "Duro". In addition to Babbitt metal, Muzzy and Lyon invented a process of custom die-casting bearings. The Muzzy-Lyon Company bearings business proved successful in the early 1900s and became the pair's main concern, with

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

as one of their earliest customers. In 1924, the Muzzy-Lyon Company and Federal Bearings and Bushing, an engine bearings and bushings manufacturing company founded in 1915 by a group of Detroit businessmen, merged to become Federal-Mogul Corporation. The combined company also manufactured bronze bearings, a product the Muzzy-Lyon Company had not supplied. Federal Mogul established a research division in 1929, with the help of

Battelle Memorial Institute Battelle Memorial Institute (more widely known as simply Battelle) is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Battelle is a charitable trust organized as a nonprofit corporation u ...

. In 1931, during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, Federal-Mogul started its Equi-Poise propeller division. In 1932, the company developed a new alloy called C-100, one of the first new bearing materials since the discovery of Babbitt metal. The Federal-Mogul research team revamped the C-100 in 1934 to create a C-50 alloy.

Post-WWII expansion

In 1955, the company acquired National Motor Bearing Company, and the company name was changed to Federal-Mogul Bower. In the late 1950s, the company opened business operations in Switzerland, and in 1962, the company established an overseas service center in Antwerp, Belgium. In 1963, Federal-Mogul Bower's Arrowhead division manufactured components for NASA's Saturn launch vehicle. In April 1965, Federal-Mogul Bower merged with Sterling Aluminum Products. The combined company was renamed the Federal-Mogul Corporation. In 1966, Federal-Mogul Corporation relocated its corporate headquarters from downtown Detroit to

Southfield, Michigan Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city had a population of 76,618. As a northern suburb of Detroit, Southfield shares part of its ...

. In 1981, Federal-Mogul Arrowhead parts were implemented in the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

launch. In 1981, the company attempted to patent a process for curing rubber based on the mathematical equation written by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

Svante Arrhenius Svante August Arrhenius ( , ; 19 February 1859 – 2 October 1927) was a Swedes, Swedish scientist. Originally a physicist, but often referred to as a chemist, Arrhenius was one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry. He received ...

in 1889. The

US Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

rejected Federal-Mogul's claim, on the basis that neither a formula, as a law of nature, nor a computer program based on such a formula, could be patented. That same year, the company won a claim in the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

to the patent.

Bankruptcy to the present

In 1998, the company acquired the Automotive Products division of

Cooper Industries Cooper Industries was an American worldwide electrical products manufacturer headquartered in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1833, the company had seven operating divisions including Bussmann electrical and electronic fuses; Crouse-Hinds and CEAG ex ...

, with brands including Anco wiper blades,

Champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, an ...

ignition, MOOG chassis, and

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

and Blazer lighting. It also acquired Cooper's Abex Friction products business, which included

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

-containing products. That same year, Federal-Mogul acquired

Turner & Newall Turner & Newall was a manufacturing business based in Manchester, United Kingdom. At its peak, it was a constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies on the London Stock Exchange. As part of their business, the company was one of the first ...

, a building materials company based in

Manchester, UK Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

. Turner & Newall was one of the world's largest manufacturers of

-related products, including those made with blue

crocidolite Riebeckite is a sodium-rich member of the amphibole group of silicate minerals, chemical formula Na2(Fe2+3Fe3+2)Si8O22(OH)2. It forms a solid solution series with magnesioriebeckite. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, usually as long prisma ...

asbestos mined in South Africa. Turner & Newall was responsible for the Armley asbestos disaster in

Leeds, UK Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

. After the acquisition, Federal-Mogul set aside approximately $2.1 billion to cover asbestos-related claims but that amount proved insufficient. The large number of products liability claims that came with the Turner & Newall acquisition were largely responsible for Federal-Mogul's federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 2002. During the company's restructuring, Federal-Mogul Corporation acquired multiple companies including Robert G. Evans Co., Hanauer Machine Works, Inc., Metaltec, Inc., Mather Co. and Fel-Pro, Inc. The company emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization in January 2008, and in April 2008, the company listed Class A common stock on NASDAQ under the trading symbol FDML. In June 2010, Federal-Mogul expanded further into Asia by opening a headquarters and technical center in Shanghai, China. The Asia Pacific headquarters and technical center facility contains powertrain dynamometers and vehicle braking test cells among other processes. The location allows for increased technical support to powertrain and vehicle customers as well as technology development. Federal-Mogul acquired Daros Group in June 2010, a privately owned supplier of pistons for large bore engines used in industrial energy generation and commercial shipping. The acquisition of the group included operations in China, Sweden and Germany. The purchase of Daros added two-stroke and four-stroke piston ring products to Federal-Mogul's portfolio of industrial piston rings. Federal Mogul Technical Center Ann Arbor

Federal Mogul Technical Center Ann Arbor

In December 2010 the company's

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

warehouse was shut down and moved to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. In March 2012, Federal-Mogul's board of directors modified the company's corporate structure to create separate Powertrain and Vehicle Components segments, each with its own CEO. Rainer Jueckstock, former senior vice president of the company's Powertrain Energy business, was named CEO for the Powertrain segment effective April 1, 2012. In February 2014, Daniel A. Ninivaggi was appointed CEO of the Federal-Mogul Vehicle Components segment (VCS). In July 2012, Federal-Mogul announced a definitive agreement to purchase the BERU spark plug business from BorgWarner Inc. In September 2014, the company formally announced the long pending modification to the company's corporate structure would be a split into two separate companies, Federal-Mogul Powertrain, and Federal-Mogul Motorparts. The Powertrain division will focus on the manufacturing and selling of OEM auto parts while the Motorparts division focuses on selling aftermarket parts. Each company has their own CEO and corporate level staff that will continue to report to the board of directors of Federal-Mogul Holding Corporation. The company expects the split to be completed in the first half of 2015 pending regulatory approval. In 2014,

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

completed a $155 million sale of its friction materials business to Federal Mogul. In December 2016, Federal-Mogul completed the acquisition of the Beck/Arnley brand and certain associated assets. Based in

Smyrna, Tennessee Smyrna is a town in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Smyrna's population was 53,070 at the 2020 census. In 2007, '' U.S. News & World Report'' listed Smyrna as one of the best places in the United States to retire. Smyrna is part of the Nashville ...

, Beck/Arnley is a provider of parts and fluids for foreign nameplate vehicles in North America. In January 2017, majority shareholder

Carl Icahn Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American financier. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach. Icahn takes l ...

completed a $300 million deal for all of Federal-Mogul's stock, after which he changed the company from a public company to a private company. In April 2018,

Tenneco Tenneco (formerly Tenneco Automotive and originally Tennessee Gas Transmission Company) is an American automotive components original equipment manufacturer and an aftermarket ride control and emissions products manufacturer. It is a Fortune 5 ...

announced that they had purchased Federal-Mogul in a deal worth approximately US$5.4 billion. On October 1, 2018, Tenneco Inc. completed its acquisition.

Company divisions

Federal-Mogul Powertrain

Federal-Mogul Powertrain designs and manufacturers original equipment powertrain components and system protection products in the United States and internationally, its diversified production line consists of various products, ranging from

powdered metal Powder metallurgy (PM) is a term covering a wide range of ways in which materials or components are made from metal powders. PM processes can reduce or eliminate the need for subtractive processes in manufacturing, lowering material losses and ...

parts to

space suit A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...

s, including engine bearings,

piston A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors, hydraulic cylinders and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tig ...

s, piston pins,

piston ring A piston ring is a metallic split ring that is attached to the outer diameter of a piston in an internal combustion engine or steam engine. The main functions of piston rings in engines are: # Sealing the combustion chamber so that there is min ...

s, cylinder liners, valve seats and guides,

spark plug A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air ...

ignition coil An ignition coil (also called a spark coil) is an induction coil in an automobile's ignition system that transforms the battery's voltage to the thousands of volts needed to create an electric spark in the spark plugs to ignite the fuel. So ...

s, transmission products,

technical textiles A technical textile is a textile product manufactured for non-aesthetic purposes, where function is the primary criterion. Technical textiles include textiles for automotive applications, medical textiles (e.g., implants), geotextiles (reinforc ...

and

connecting rod A connecting rod, also called a 'con rod', is the part of a piston engine which connects the piston to the crankshaft. Together with the crank, the connecting rod converts the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotation of the cranksh ...

s. Bower Roller Bearing Division was a major supplier of bearings for

missiles In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

and aircraft, and for many other industries – automotive, construction machinery, machine tool and farm equipment.

Federal-Mogul Motorparts

Federal-Mogul Motorparts sells and distributes products under more than 20 brands in the global vehicle aftermarket, including ANCO wiper blades; Bentley-Harris protection solutions; Champion spark plugs, wipers and filters, BERU glow plugs; AE, Fel-Pro, Goetze, Nural, Glyco and Payen engine products; MOOG steering and suspension parts; and Ferodo and Wagner brake products.

Awards

Federal-Mogul has received 16

Automotive News ''Automotive News'' is a weekly newspaper written for the automotive industry, predominantly individuals corresponding with automobile manufacturers and automotive suppliers. Based in Detroit and owned by Crain Communications Inc, ''Automotive ...

PACE Award Pace or paces may refer to: Business *Pace (transit), a bus operator in the suburbs of Chicago, US *Pace Airlines, an American charter airline *Pace Foods, a maker of a popular brand of salsa sold in North America, owned by Campbell Soup Company ...

s. The awards are for automotive suppliers that show innovation, technological advancement and business performance. Federal-Mogul received their first PACE Award in 2003; their most recent was awarded in 2016.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Federal-Mogul Website
Companies based in Southfield, Michigan Auto parts suppliers of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Michigan Manufacturing companies established in 1899 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Asbestos 1899 establishments in Michigan 2008 initial public offerings 2017 mergers and acquisitions 2018 mergers and acquisitions