Okay Industries Acquires Reliance Laser

Okay Industries Inc. is expanding its laser cutting, welding, marking and surface treatment capabilities with the acquisition of Reliance Laser of Agawam, Mass. The companies plan to completely integrate operations at Okay’s medical products manufacturing location in Berlin, Conn.

Okay is a contract manufacturing company for medical, automotive, firearms/defense and industrial markets, with more than 100 years of experience stamping and machining a wide range of metals, including stainless steels, titanium and nitinol.

Reliance Laser manufactures medical components for implantable devices and surgical instruments, using a range of laser technologies including laser tube cutting, welding, marking and surface treatment.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“When you collaborate with customers, you learn what their real needs are,” said Jason Howey, president of Okay. “This acquisition is the latest example of how we’re evolving our business to deliver solutions that help our customers improve their businesses. As we integrate Reliance’s people, processes and equipment into our operations, we’ll give our customers more options for designing
and manufacturing leading-edge products.”

Reliance Laser brings Okay a completely new technology that combines a CNC Swiss Lathe with laser cutting. It fully integrates a six-axis precision automatic lathe with a fully enabled laser cutting module, Okay officials reported. The result, they claim, is a multifunction system capable of everything you would expect from Swiss-type CNC turning centers integrated with simultaneous fine laser cutting. The technology’s combination of capabilities “dramatically reduces cycle time” by using the faster of the two
technologies with every part feature, officials noted. The parallel manufacturing technologies also deliver the capability to create features that are not possible to manufacture on a conventional Swiss lathe.

For example, the new equipment can create slots as narrow as .0015 inches and small holes with no “tool wear.”

Over the past several years, Okay has added CNC machining, greater engineering capabilities and a standalone medical products manufacturing facility to proactively manage evolving customer manufacturing needs. Since 2008, Reliance Laser has been designing and developing equipment and processes for high-volume laser manufacturing of medical device components, fine tuning capabilities as components continue to shrink and tolerances continue to tighten.

“Reliance has always strived to create innovative solutions that our customers can rely on,” said Joe Lovotti, president of Reliance Laser. “Our exclusive focus on laser technology over the past five years has resulted in specialized, new technologies and procedures that expand the breadth of solutions Okay can deliver for its customer.”

In addition to its headquarters and manufacturing in New Britain and Berlin, Conn., respectively, Okay Industries Inc. also has a medical and precision components operation in Alajuela, Costa Rica.