Precision Castparts Corp., the aggressively expanding investment casting and forging organization, agreed to acquire Synchronous Aerospace Group, a custom fabricator of aircraft mechanical assemblies for commercial aerospace and defense markets. The value of the cash acquisition was not announced, but PCC stated it expects to complete the purchase by the end of 2012 – subject to regulatory approvals.
Synchronous has almost 700 employees at four locations in Kent, WA, Tulsa, OK, Santa Ana, CA, and Wichita, KS. It manufactures mechanical assemblies like high-lift mechanisms and secondary flight controls, as well as structural components, including wing ribs, bulkheads, and track and beam assemblies. Its core capabilities include gantry machining, hard-metal machining, high-speed machining, turning, sheet-metal forming, and metal and composite bonding.
"Synchronous is another ‘tuck in’ acquisition that will make a strong contribution as we continue to expand our aerostructures capabilities," stated PCC chairman and CEO Mark Donegan. "Their gantry capabilities will enable us to manufacture larger components and to machine as many as four to five parts simultaneously. In addition, we can pull in-house the fasteners, forgings, and castings that Synchronous currently purchases on the outside.
“We will also gain synergies from the proximity of Synchronous locations to many of our existing operations,” Donegan continued. “Overall, we are excited about Synchronous and its solid management team joining us as we further strengthen our Airframe Products segment."
In a skein of acquisitions over the past three years, Precision Castparts has made the aerospace market an area of particular focus. Earlier this year it bought Klune Industries, an investment casting foundry in Spanish Fork, UT, that produces aluminum, stainless steel, and Inconel 625 products. Klune alsomachines and fabricates aircraft component structures in aluminum, nickel, titanium, and steel. The move extends a series of PCC acquisitions that are focused on aircraft manufacturing, though it has also purchased companies operating in the power-generation market.
Other aerospace purchases have included Centra Industries, an Ontario machining and fabricating operation specializing in “aerostructures”; Dickson Testing Co., a California company that performs mechanical, metallurgical, and chemical destructive testing services; and Aerocraft Heat Treating Co., a heat treater for titanium- and nickel-alloy forgings and castings used in aerospace manufacturing.
But, the acquisition spree has also included several companies supplying specialized parts and fabrications, as well as its pending merger with Titanium Metals Corp.