Profits Up for Pacific Scientific : Income: A ‘continued improvement in operations’ is cited for dramatic increase to $1.2 million in second quarter.

Pacific Scientific Co. said Monday it nearly tripled its second-quarter profits despite lower revenues, a sign that the company’s attempts to improve its manufacturing efficiency is working.

The maker of aerospace and industrial parts said that profits of $1.2 million, equal to 23 cents per share, were up dramatically from 1991 net income of $416,000, or 6 cents per share.

“The continued improvement in operations is evident from the higher gross profit margins and control over operational expenses,” Edgar S. Brower, the company’s chairman and president, said in a statement.

Sales fell 3% during the quarter to $43.4 million from $44.7 million in 1991. Last year, however, the company was still generating revenue from its Belfab division, which was sold in the fall. The Newport Beach-based company trimmed its work force by 11% last year and now employs 1,325 people, including 150 in Orange County.

Revenue from aircraft safety equipment fell 12% from a year earlier because of the uncertainty in the commercial and military markets. About 20% of Pacific Scientific’s sales come from commercial aircraft, and 25% from U.S. defense contracts.

“I’m not worried so much about the military as I am the commercial aviation industry,” said John Ball, an analyst for JBL/New England, a financial research firm in Concord, Mass. “With so many (companies) going bankrupt, there’s going to be a lot more planes littering the desert. Still, that’s not going to last forever.”

The federal government also has yet to recertify Pacific Scientific’s pilot and crew restraints, which are used on military aircraft. Approval is expected within the next three months, according to a company spokesman.

Pacific Scientific saw sales of its electrical equipment climb 13% in the second quarter. The company has been a dominant supplier of motors and controls for automated equipment, including new mail-sorting systems being installed for the U.S. Postal Service.

For the first six months, profits rose 92% to $2.3 million from $1.2 million a year earlier. Sales dipped 4.9% to $84.3 million from $88.6 million.

The company has nearly completed a seven-year program of buying and selling divisions and overhauling its production process, in which workers, managers and the sales force were reoriented to specific product lines, said Ball, the JBL/New England analyst.

Ball recently completed a research report on Pacific Scientific that projected the company would end this year with profits of $5 million, or 95 cents per share. In 1993, he projects net income of $6.9 million, or $1.30 per share.

“They have been buying and selling product lines so much (in the past seven years) it was not always clear where the company was on a profit and loss standpoint,” Ball said. “What we are seeing, from this time forward, is what the company really is.”

Shares of Pacific Scientific rose 13 cents Monday to close at $13.63 on the New York Stock Exchange.