A suburban Chicago maker of fasteners, plastics, and engineered components has acquired a Massachusetts metal 3D printing firm for an undisclosed price, company officials announced.
MacLean-Fogg Component Solutions said its purchase of Formetrix includes a "market-leading” intellectual property portfolio in metal powders. MacLean-Fogg executives said those capabilities would expand its ability to serve original equipment manufacturers, tier 1 and 2 customers, and tool and die makers in the automotive, heavy equipment, and industrial sectors.
Officials said Formetrix’s patented steel alloys provide a unique combination of "hardness, ductility, toughness, and 3D-printability,” and will help manufacturers save costs, time, and weight while enabling tool-to-tool repeatability.
"As a previous customer of Formetrix, we were able to implement technical cost breakthroughs with their material and process innovations that others in the additive manufacturing business claimed were impossible,” MacLean-Fogg President and CEO Duncan MacLean said in the announcement. "We couldn’t be more excited to continue to make their innovations available for our internal users, as well as serve other innovative manufacturers and tool makers.”
MacLean-Fogg added that its manufacturing scope would allow it to rapidly scale tooling applications in metal forming, die casting, and injection molding.
The newly acquired business will be renamed MacLean Formetrix and headquartered in Macomb Township, near Detroit. Greg Rizzo will lead the division as general manager, and former Formetix official Harald Lemke was named its director of product management.
