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Unova Inc. has agreed to sell its Cincinnati Lamb machine-tool operations, which employs about 400 in Hebron, Ky.

The operations are all that remain in Greater Cincinnati of the Cincinnati Milacron machine tool operations that were founded more than 100 years ago.

The business will be sold to an affiliate of New York-based Maxcor Inc. for $26 million in cash and notes and the assumption of about $34 million of pension-related obligations, the companies announced today. The sale to MAG Industrial Automation Systems LLC, a unit of Maxcor, is expected to close during the next 30 days, Unova said.

For the Hebron operations -- Cincinnati Lamb's aerospace and heavy-equipment machinery and aftermarket products and service operations -- the deal is expected to result in capital investment and faster growth, said Chip Storie, vice president of global aerospace sales.

"For the Hebron facility, they're going to double output in a very short period of time," Storie said. "Growth is the strategy."

While doubling output won't require twice as many employees, growth initiatives are expected to create significant job opportunities in many areas of the operation over the next 12-to-18 months, he said. About 400 people work there now.

Unova acquired Milacron's faltering machine tool business in 1998 for $180 million and renamed it Cincinnati Machine. The company later merged it with its Lamb Technicon subsidiary to form Cincinnati Lamb, which maintains its headquarters in Warren, Mich., outside Detroit.

Maxcor is an investment and operations management firm that focuses on acquiring underperforming companies with between $50 million and $500 million in annual revenues. It also provides turnaround advisory services.

Storie said Maxcor does not view Cincinnati Lamb as a troubled business and that the deal represents a departure from its typical investment strategies. Maxcor officials could not be reached.

Unova announced last month it intended to divest Cincinnati Lamb and its Landis Grinding businesses so it could concentrate on its Intermec Technologies subsidiary that markets radio-frequency identification (RFID) products, mobile computing systems, bar-code systems and supplies.

Unova's Intermec Media Products subsidiary is based in West Chester. It produces paper and synthetic stock for labels and tags and employs about 150 people in the region.