Analytical instrument giant Thermo Electron Corp. has purchased EGS Gauging Inc., a maker of devices to monitor plastic film and sheet during high-speed production.
Thermo Electron, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, generated $2.63 billion in 2005 sales from diverse markets.
Thermo Electron announced the acquisition of EGS Gauging on June 30.
Thermo Electron already is a major manufacturer of gauges to measure thickness and coating weight for the steel and aluminum industries.
Picking up EGS Gauging brings the company expertise in instruments to measure plastic film and sheet - applications that the industry calls web processing.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Both companies are based in Massachusetts, Thermo Electron in Waltham and EGS Gauging in Billerica.
EGS Gauging products include noncontact thickness gauges.
Thermo Electron's plastics-related products include rheometers, laboratory-size compounding extruders and auxiliary equipment such as feeders, strand dies, sheet dies and blown film units.
But Thermo's analytical instruments go to a range of customers, far beyond plastics.
The company's products go into power plants, clinical chemistry, crime forensics, industrial hygiene and oil exploration, radiation measurement, water testing and many other end markets.