Company Acquires Two EDM Machines
SALISBURY, NC – March 24, 2020 – Advanced Machining & Tooling, LLC, a leading manufacturer of precision metal components, with capabilities including both EDM and CNC machining, announced Tuesday that it has acquired two additional EDM machines to supplement the company’s already state-of-the-art array of units capable of electrical discharge machining.
“We are thrilled with adding to our EDM capacity and capabilities,” explained Keith Felts, Advanced’s President. “One of these units is a three-year-old wire EDM machine in pristine condition. It was up and running a couple of days after arriving at our Salisbury facility. The other one is a used sinker EDM machine that required a little maintenance work, but it was quickly put into operation as well.”
Advanced Machining purchased these machines from other shops in North Carolina that no longer needed them. Both are Swiss-built AgieCharmilles units manufactured by GF Machining Solutions.
Advanced Machining, already a leader in the sinker and wire EDM industry, now possesses four wire EDM and three sinker EDM machines.
“We are particularly excited about our new Agie wire EDM machine,” stated Patrick Reynolds, Operations Manager at Advanced. “This unit is equipped with options for small wire and fine finishes and can run up to twice as fast as our existing wire EDM machines. We have tons of EDM work, so this really helps us out.”
“These new machines are great,” added Paul Lutz, Advanced Machining’s EDM and Maintenance Specialist. “They give us so much more capacity to satisfy customers needing EDM processes to make their parts.”
Advanced Machining operates from a 10,000-square-foot facility in Salisbury, NC at 215 Forbes Avenue. It manufactures complex prototype and low-to-mid volume metal parts, focusing on blue chip customers in the telecommunication, medical, aerospace and defense markets. Felts and his partner Bobby Miller founded Advanced Machining in 1985. ZP Enterprises, LLC, an Atlanta-based firm, acquired majority interest in the company in 2011.
In October 2019, Main Street Capital Partners, a Pittsburgh-based private equity firm, acquired Advanced Machining, along with its sister operating companies, Quality Products & Machine, LLC and Tri-Tec Industries, LLC, both in Charlotte, NC, from ZP Enterprises. Main Street established Compass Precision, LLC at that time as the parent company of Quality, Advanced and Tri-Tec with an emphasis on strong decentralized management at each individual operating company.