Victrex acquires US-based Kleiss Gears

Victrex, the UK-based global polyether etherketone (PEEK) polymer-based solutions provider, has acquired US-based polymer gears specialist Kleiss Gears, thus further enhancing Victrex’s ability to provide complete integrated solutions. The acquisition will help facilitate the rapid development of solutions to key challenges facing customers across industries, including enhanced durability and reliability, better performance, significant reductions in energy consumption and weight, and up to 50% reduction in noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), compared with metal gears.
 
With this deal, customers can benefit from integrated polymer-based gear capabilities, including design, prototyping, testing, tool design and manufacture of polymer-based gears. Kleiss Gears has a proven track record stretching over 20 years of replacing and complementing metal gear systems with high-performance engineering polymer gears such as Victrex PEEK.
 
The pairing of Kleiss Gears' high precision gear design, testing and manufacturing capability with Victrex’s materials technology, innovation focus, technical excellence and global commercial scale, provides a new integrated option for customers. Victrex, headquartered in the UK, is now able to better support the development of high performance polymer gears for demanding applications in automotive, energy and other industries – whether a material solution or the complete integrated system solution that customers seek.
 
David Hummel, chief executive of Victrex, said, “The acquisition of Kleiss Gears is in line with our strategy of creating value through high performance polymer solutions and demonstrates how we are moving further downstream to support our customers and our markets.”
 
Following the acquisition, Victrex will be able to enhance its offering, including rapid development processes such as material selection, gear and tool design, testing and validation, and precision manufacturing capabilities. This will enable customers to bring robust solutions to the market faster, and subsequently pave the way to greater mutual success.
 
Victrex serves a diversified range of markets such as automotive, aerospace, electronics, energy and medical, and collaborates with industry leaders to provide solutions to their key challenges with its high-performance PEEK polymer-based solutions.