RETIREMENT BENEFIT PLANS

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Defined Benefit Pension Plans and Defined Benefit Postretirement Plans Disclosure [Abstract]

RETIREMENT BENEFIT PLANS

RETIREMENT BENEFIT PLANS

The Company maintains defined benefit pension plans that cover employees in its manufacturing plants located in Andover, United Kingdom (the “UK Plan”) and Tuttlingen, Germany (the “Germany Plan”). The Company closed the Tuttlingen, Germany plant in December 2005. The Company did not terminate the Germany Plan, and the Company remains obligated for the accrued pension benefits related to this plan. The plans cover certain current and former employees.

Effective March 31, 2011, the Company froze the benefits due to the participants of the UK Plan in their entirety; this curtailment resulted in a $0.3 million reduction in the projected benefit obligations which the Company recorded on that date. The Company recorded the entire curtailment gain as an offset to the unrecognized net actuarial loss in accumulated other comprehensive income; therefore, this gain had no impact on the condensed consolidated statements of operations.

Net periodic benefit costs for the Company’s defined benefit pension plans included the following amounts:

	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2012			2011			2012			2011
	(In thousands)
Service cost	$	6		$	—		$	19		$	53
Interest cost	157			167			478			501
Expected return on plan assets	(142		)	(147		)	(432		)	(443		)
Net period benefit cost	$	21		$	20		$	65		$	111

The Company made $0.6 million and $0.9 million of contributions to its defined benefit pension plans during the nine months ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, respectively.