An equipment manufacturing company from the Netherlands announced Thursday it had acquired the intellectual property of Hess Industries, a Niles company which ceased operations in June of last year, leaving many unemployed.

The company that acquired Hess Industries is the Fontijne Grotnes Group, a builder of production equipment that can be used in optimizing complex manufacturing processes.

A press release from FGG did not provide many details about the acquisition, but it did say FGG would maintain a part of the Hess Industries production facility in Milton Township. This location will be renamed Fontijne Formitt, Inc.

The acquisition includes all intellectual property of Hess Industries, minus the Wheel IP. This acquisition includes Formitt Metal Labs, a division of Hess Industries.

Below is the entire press release from Fontijne Formitt:

Vlaardingen, The Netherlands — The Fontijne Grotnes Group is expanding and proud to announce the acquisition of Intellectual Property (IP) of Hess Industries, Inc minus the Wheel IP. This acquisition includes Formitt Metal Labs, a division of Hess Industries.

The newly acquired product portfolio will be positioned as Fontijne Formitt, Inc. With this extension the Fontijne Grotnes Group continues to advance solutions for the Metalforming industry.

Newly Acquired Product Portfolio

Fontijne Formitt Inc. portfolio contains Formitt Processes and Formitt Metal Labs.

Formitt Processes’ focus is design and production of the equipment for the manufacturing process of catalytic converters. This includes canning assembly, (rotary) sizing and spinning equipment. It also comprises specialized areas of expertise such as the patented  AGC Gauging System that provides added value for the accurateness of the production process.

Formitt Metal Labs concentrates on process development and prototyping for various metalforming applications.

Sales, Service and Production facilities

Sales and service activities of the new products will be available worldwide. With this acquisition the Fontijne Grotnes Group will maintain a part of the Hess Industries production facility in Niles, Michigan. This location will be renamed Fontijne Formitt, Inc. The facility in Buffalo Grove, Illinois will continue to be responsible for all other products and services of the Fontijne Grotnes Group, this will be the same for all other facilities.

Fontijne Grotnes Group in brief:

Fontijne Grotnes is an equipment manufacturer, headquartered  in the Netherlands. The company has over 100 years of experience in multiple industries. We are located worldwide with, sales, service, and manufacturing facilities in Vlaardingen, The Netherlands, Buffalo Grove, Illinois, and Niles, Michigan.  Additionally regional sales offices are located in China, Russia, India and Japan.

Fontijne Grotnes builds production equipment that can be used in optimizing complex manufacturing processes. These processes and services are mainly utilized in:

• Wheel industry; design and manufacturing of steel wheel production lines for the automotive industry

• Tire and wheel Industry; tire and wheel assembly lines for (semi) automatic assembly and inflation of tubeless tires in normal or low profile type with steel and aluminum wheels of various dimensions.

• Pipe industry; design and construction of pipe-ends and Full Length Pipe Expanders for the pipe industry to optimize the quality of LSAW and HSAW pipes for the transportation of oil and gas.

• Sizing and forming equipment for metalforming applications in the domestic appliance, aerospace, automotive and forging industry

• Laboratory Platen Presses for the polymer processing, rubber and composites industry

• Nuclear Supercompactors for compacting nuclear waste.

• Global Services