Allied Motion Expands Smart Factory Solutions With Spectrum Controls Acquisition

Allied Motion Technologies Inc. (Allied) serves the motion control market. Allied Motion designs, manufactures, and supplies motion control components and systems for a broad range of industries. Primary target markets include vehicle, medical, aerospace and defense, electronics, and other industrial markets. 

Spectrum Controls, Inc. (Spectrum) is an industrial automation company that supplies hardware and software products for industrial controls. The company’s product offerings include input-output (I/O) modules, human-machine interfaces (HMIs), and communication devices. Spectrum Controls supplies its products and solutions to power, food, paper, oil, mining, material handling, and biopharmaceutical sectors. 

Allied Motion announced its acquisition of Spectrum Controls with a purchase price of $70 million.

This partnership brings industrial automation hardware and software. Screenshot used courtesy of Allied Motion

 

A value of $45 million (of the $70 million purchase price) was paid when the deal was closed with a combination of $27 million in cash and the remainder in the company’s common stock at $35.82 per share. The remaining $25 million is set to be paid in two equal payments in 2022 and 2023. These payments will be 50% cash and 50% stock.

 

Joining IIoT and AI for Smart Factories

By welcoming Spectrum Controls, Allied Motion hopes to expand its customer base, add to existing engineering resources, and enhance its position concerning product supply to the industrial automation and industrial controls market.

Spectrum expects to welcome its entire team to Allied and considers this acquisition strategic toward enhancing its industrial automation solutions. Specifically, Allied notes that Spectrum will help the company meet functional safety requirements.

Allied Motion works with AMRs and warehousing. Image used courtesy of Allied Motion

 

Allied will benefit from Spectrum’s continued digital transformation efforts surrounding the industrial internet of things (IIoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics. IIoT and AI are transforming smart factories. IIoT connects machines to the internet, and AI extracts data from these machines. This allows for automation, which can improve productivity. These technologies also help monitor the production process and produce more accurate forecasts.

Industry 4.0 describes smart factories that use IIoT and AI technologies like machine learning, predictive analytics, robotics, 3D printing, etc. The aim of Industry 4.0 is to make factories more efficient by reducing human error and increasing production rates while also improving quality control through better monitoring capabilities. 

The communion between Allied Motion and Spectrum Controls is set to bring forward new technological advancements that will help make its Industry 4.0 operations a reality.