Sunnen Acquires BTA Heller
This deal gives them a premiere deep hole tooling and systems manufacturer that can provide complete bore creation and finishing systems.
Posted: February 7, 2018
Sunnen Products Company (St. Louis, MO) has acquired BTA Heller Incorporated (Troy, MI) a manufacturer of deep hole tooling and systems for primary hole generation. This move aims to expand Sunnen’s industry leading honing expertise to include tooling for initial hole creation and other complementary bore sizing and finishing processes. They will retain the BTA Heller name as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sunnen Products Company, as both companies build on natural synergies to offer complete bore creation and finishing solutions.
“They are a natural fit for us. Our companies complement each other very well and BTA Heller’s reputation in the industry for deep hole drilling expertise is unsurpassed,” said Chris Miltenberger, the president and chief operating officer of Sunnen. “The transfer of knowledge between our two companies will create a unique value proposition for our customers. And, with this acquisition, no other deep hole/BTA company will have our global presence for technical and post-sale support.”
The Heller roots trace back to Germany more than 100 years ago. BTA Heller started in 1952 in Troy, MI, as American Heller. In 2007, their name changed to BTA Heller and they have continued to produce unique tooling and processes for gun drilling, single tube, BTA, and double tube/ejector drilling systems, among others. “We have developed various tools and systems for creating intricate internal profiled deep hole drilling from 0.5 in to 36 in diameter,” explained Mark Sollich, the president and chief executive officer of BTA Heller. “To combine forces with them and their bore geometry expertise creates a company not found anywhere else in our industry. No one company can provide a total bore solution from the creation of the primary hole to the final bore finish specifications like we can.” Sollich will continue at the helm of BTA Heller after the acquisition, under the Sunnen Products Company umbrella.
Sunnen is the world’s largest vertically integrated manufacturer of honing systems for precision bore sizing and finishing. Core technical competencies include automated and manual honing systems, custom system development and integration, abrasives, tooling, lubricants, and gaging. They recently introduced the new SHD series skiving and roller burnishing system with tooling supplied by BTA Heller.
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