A platform company goes on acquisition spree

InCompass, an umbrella company formed to bring together businesses offering manufacturing solutions, has made two acquisitions that “align perfectly with the InCompass commitment to delivering superior industrial solutions.”

The platform company of TJM Capital Partners has acquired Bourn & Koch Inc., a manufacturer of machinery including gear shaping, grinding, milling, and turning equipment, and the machinery division of Mollart Engineering, which makes deep-hole drilling machine tools.

With the integration of Bourn & Koch, InCompass expands its global footprint and gains a competitive edge in key industries, the company said in a statement.

The acquired company will continue to expand InCompass manufacturing solutions in markets including Aerospace, Automotive, Defense, Energy, and more. InCompass CEO Micah Coleman said, "At InCompass, we are committed to providing our customers with a comprehensive range of solutions. The addition of Bourn & Koch further strengthens our ability to be the preferred partner for their manufacturing needs."

As for Mollart, which makes solutions for gun drilling, deep hole boring, and deep hole finishing, Chairman Tom McDonough said the acquisition fit within the company’s vision for growth.

“Mollart provides exceptional products for deep hole drilling and gives us the opportunity to provide more solutions to our customers,” said McDonough.

The financial terms of the two transactions were not disclosed.

Enlarging a hole that already has been drilled or cored. Generally, it is an operation of truing the previously drilled hole with a single-point, lathe-type tool. Boring is essentially internal turning, in that usually a single-point cutting tool forms the internal shape. Some tools are available with two cutting edges to balance cutting forces.

Machine designed to rotate end-cutting tools. Can also be used for reaming, tapping, countersinking, counterboring, spotfacing and boring.

Machining with several cutters mounted on a single arbor, generally for simultaneous cutting.

Machining operation in which material is removed from the workpiece by a powered abrasive wheel, stone, belt, paste, sheet, compound, slurry, etc. Takes various forms: surface grinding (creates flat and/or squared surfaces); cylindrical grinding (for external cylindrical and tapered shapes, fillets, undercuts, etc.); centerless grinding; chamfering; thread and form grinding; tool and cutter grinding; offhand grinding; lapping and polishing (grinding with extremely fine grits to create ultrasmooth surfaces); honing; and disc grinding.

Machining operation in which metal or other material is removed by applying power to a rotating cutter. In vertical milling, the cutting tool is mounted vertically on the spindle. In horizontal milling, the cutting tool is mounted horizontally, either directly on the spindle or on an arbor. Horizontal milling is further broken down into conventional milling, where the cutter rotates opposite the direction of feed, or “up” into the workpiece; and climb milling, where the cutter rotates in the direction of feed, or “down” into the workpiece. Milling operations include plane or surface milling, endmilling, facemilling, angle milling, form milling and profiling.

Using a shaper primarily to produce flat surfaces in horizontal, vertical or angular planes. It can also include the machining of curved surfaces, helixes, serrations and special work involving odd and irregular shapes. Often used for prototype or short-run manufacturing to eliminate the need for expensive special tooling or processes.

Workpiece is held in a chuck, mounted on a face plate or secured between centers and rotated while a cutting tool, normally a single-point tool, is fed into it along its periphery or across its end or face. Takes the form of straight turning (cutting along the periphery of the workpiece); taper turning (creating a taper); step turning (turning different-size diameters on the same work); chamfering (beveling an edge or shoulder); facing (cutting on an end); turning threads (usually external but can be internal); roughing (high-volume metal removal); and finishing (final light cuts). Performed on lathes, turning centers, chucking machines, automatic screw machines and similar machines.