Sales in the medical product line were up 8% to $14.6 million. The increase was in sales of slip rings to Philips Medical for CT Scan machines. Sales of motor blower assemblies for Respironics’ sleep apnea equipment were down slightly in the quarter. Unit volume has increased, but we’ve reduced unit prices in line with our continuing cost reduction efforts.

In our industrial products, sales were up 12% in the quarter to a total of $15.2 million. The increase was primarily the result of the Techtron acquisition. The Techtron product line is slip rings for closed circuit TV.

Components Group FY’08

The fourth quarter for the Components Group that I just described was like a microcosm for the year. Sales for the year of $341 million were up 20%. Sales were up in every product category.

In the aircraft business, our products are used to power and control all sorts of electro-optic devices including FLIR systems, targeting systems and radar. Major growth for the year was provided by the Northrop Grumman Guardian System and Raytheon’s Multi-Spectral Targeting System. Our electronic components are also used in avionic systems produced by Rockwell, Honeywell, Boeing and Lockheed. Helicopter deicing is another important slip ring application and we’re a supplier on most military helicopters. The most significant single program is the Blackhawk. Sales of aircraft products for the year at $110.3 million were up 15%. Of that sales total, 24% was aftermarket revenue and it was actually down slightly from the year previous.

The space and defense category for the Components Group is dominated by products that are used to take power and control into the rotating turret on military vehicles and to power the tank driver’s viewing system. The primary platforms are the Abrams, the Bradley, and the Stryker. Other space and defense applications include electric motors and components on missile control systems and solar array drive assemblies for space vehicles. Sales in the space and defense category of $66.4 million were up 24% from last year. Of this total, only 12% represents aftermarket revenues.

Sales of products used in the marine industry had a fantastic year. Revenues of $46.4 million were up 53%. The product line includes slip rings (large, small and very large), fiber-optic rotary joints, and the electronic multiplexers that direct the signal traffic. Most of these products are designed and built in a company in Halifax that was part of the Kaydon acquisition. In the 12 months before the acquisition, this company was doing $13 million in business. This year they did over $40 million. Product line sales have been supplemented by the acquisition of the Prizm line of multiplexers, which generated just over $5 million in sales for the year.

Our medical products category has been dominated in recent years by electric motor and blower assemblies sold to Respironics and slip rings sold to various CT Scan manufacturers, but primarily Philips. Sales this year were up 8% to just under $57 million. The growth in the year was primarily in the CT Scan market.

Our industrial business grew by a little over $10 million or 21% to a new total of $60.8 million. But the growth was primarily the acquisition of Thermal Control Products, a manufacturer of motor-blower assemblies and Techtron, a competitor in the CCTV slip ring business.

Components Group FY’09

Our forecast for the Components Group for FY’09 is $367 million, an increase of 7½%. We made our last major acquisition in our fiscal ’05. So, the Kaydon companies were part of our Components Group in fiscal ’06. Our organic growth in the two fiscal years since then has been over 15% - more than double what we’re projecting as the growth rate for fiscal ’09. In thinking about the recession’s potential impact on our Components Group, I would first consider that 83% of the sales of the Components Group go into aircraft, space and defense, marine, and medical. The revenues from the marine business may be influenced by the declining price of oil, but other than that, we don’t think these markets will be much affected. In the aircraft business, we’re forecasting $126 million, an increase of $16 million, which is the result of increasing production rates on two programs, the Guardian System for Northrop Grumman and the Multi-Spectral Targeting System for Raytheon. These are firm contracts with delivery schedules that are not likely to change. We’re actually forecasting a modest decline in our avionics business as some of our older, electromechanical cockpit displays have phased out of production.