Parts and assembly maker Interplex Industries Inc. has expanded its plastics stake by acquiring Quantum Leap Packaging Inc.
QLP is an electronics company that developed a liquid-crystal polymer now used in airtight electronic packaging. Quantech is designed to adhere to metal, to have a coefficient of expansion that is equal in all directions and to resist temperatures exceeding 842° F.
Quantech competes with ceramic in semiconductor packaging applications such as image sensors and high-power microwave assemblies. Interplex foresees broader applications including replacement of metal components in high-stiffness and high-temperature uses, said Interplex Executive Vice President Steven Feinstein in an e-mail. The material also could replace ceramics in airtight open-cavity semiconductor packaging.
“Interplex, a global manufacturing organization with scale, should allow for this new materials-science and packaging technology to be commercialized in a wider variety of applications,” QLP founder Michael Zimmerman said in a news release. He will continue with QLP as chief technology officer.
College Point, N.Y.-based Interplex has begun moving QLP's assets from Wilmington, Mass., to its Interplex Engineered Products facility in East Providence, R.I. The facility has stamping, plating, overmolding and testing capabilities and now owns the Quantech formulation. Interplex concluded the purchase in early July. Terms weren't disclosed.
“The addition of QLP is a natural expansion of Interplex's vertically integrated global electronic packaging businesss,” Feinstein said in a news release.
The purchased business has been renamed Interplex QLP.
Quantech can be injection molded, according to Feinstein. Interplex has a substantial custom injection molding business with 12 sites in North America, Europe and Asia. It produces high-tolerance parts for automotive, communications, consumer, electronics, industrial and medical markets. Its presses have clamping forces of 22-500 tons.
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