In a string of recent deals, private equity firm Arcline Investment Management along with its subsidiary Quantic Electronics have bought up a prominent array of magnetics capabilities and products with their purchases of ECI Transcon Technologies and Dwyer Instruments, among other electronics firms while, in late April, proffered a purchase of Omega Engineering that is expected to close later this year. ECI is a specialist in magnetic components, the other two companies produce and market an assortment of magnetic sensing and flow control products with extensive customer and dealer relations worldwide.
The ECI deal came first, through one of Arcline’s portfolio companies, Quantic Electronics. A holding company of mission-critical electronics suppliers, Quantic acquired magnetic components company ECI Transcon Technologies of Westfield, Massachusetts in September 2021. Founded in 1947, ECI specializes in the design and manufacture of passive magnetic components for numerous markets including aerospace, automotive, avionics, communications, consumer, industrial controls, marine, medical, military and power supplies.
“The addition of ECI and its broad product portfolio is the first step in establishing a new electromagnetic technology platform within Quantic,” said Kevin Perhamus, president and CEO of Quantic. “ECI has seen significant growth over the last few years, and by leveraging Quantic’s complementary products and access to potential customers, the company will be uniquely positioned to continue to build upon its success.”
“ECI has a long history of developing leading electromagnetic components that solve our customers’ difficult design challenges,” said Pablo Nyarady, president and general manager of ECI. “We’re thrilled to represent the start of an exciting new technology platform within Quantic, and the entire ECI team is looking forward to receiving the support Quantic will provide to help us achieve our product, technology and growth goals.”
ECI has been involved in space magnetics for many years, having supplied devices for the cooling and water systems on the International Space Station, components for the space shuttle and Orion programs and numerous communication, weather and military satellites.
Another specialty area is planar magnetic components such as transformers with low profile core structures utilizing laminated or copper lead-frame windings in place of round magnet wire. These are often used in switch-mode power supplies with the advantage that winding circuits may be interleaved, thus minimizing parasitic leakage inductance. Terminations can be arranged to suit specific applications and multiple windings may be incorporated on a single structure, limited only by the number of layers available and space allocated for pin-outs. Other advantages of planar, the company notes, include integrated planar magnetics where the output inductor is combined with the transformer, resulting in an overall reduction in space.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Quantic owns a stable of electronics companies. Among them are EMI filter company Corry Micronics, Planar Monolithic Industries, BEI Precision and Ohmega Technologies, which among its products makes embedded passive resistors for reduced surface electrical magnetic interference in electronic circuitry. Acquired in August 2021, BEI makes sensitive feedback sensors and frequency reference products used in many military programs.
The parent company, Arcline, operates from offices in Nashville, New York and San Francisco. With a $4.4 billion cumulative portfolio and positioned as an active, growth-oriented investment firm, it owns numerous manufacturers of engineered components. In July, Arcline acquired a controlling stake in Dwyer Instruments which designs and manufactures sensors and instruments for process automation, HVAC and building automation markets worldwide.
Dwyer holds 93 active and pending patents and offers a broad suite of over 40,000 configurable SKUs. It serves over 20,000 active OEM, distribution and end-user customers through its offices in the U.S., U.K., Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore. Among them are numerous magnetic sensing devices including portable gaussmeters and magnetic flow meters.
Then on April 19 of this year, Arcline announced that it has reached agreement with Spectris plc to acquire Omega Engineering in a transaction valued at about $525 million. Omega is a global provider of sensing, control and monitoring technologies and will be joining the Dwyer group of companies. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.
Founded in 1962, Omega offers more than 100,000 products for measurement and control of temperature, humidity, pressure, strain, force, flow, level, pH and conductivity. Among its products are an extensive line of magnetic measurement tools and control devices.
“Omega is a tremendous addition to the Dwyer Group of companies, bringing a highly respected brand and a broad, world-class product portfolio,” said Chuck Dubois, CEO of Dwyer. For more info, see www.eciworld.com, www.quanticnow.com and www.arcline.com.
