German compounding firm Lehmann & Voss & Co. KG has acquired Performance Compounding LLC for an undisclosed price.
Performance is based in Pawcatuck, Conn., where Hamburg-based L&V has its U.S. office. Performance makes compounds based on engineering resins and fluoropolymers for both custom and contract markets.
“The involvement in Performance Compounding is an ideal strategic addition to achieve the growth targets for our Luvocom high performance compounds in the U.S.,” L&V global director Alexander Sunder said in a Sept. 12 news release.
Performance will continue to operate under that name in the U.S. Managing Director Lefteris Valsamis will remain with the firm as general manager.
The firms have been working together since early 2012, when L&V ended its relationship with materials firm Techmer PM LLC. L&V had owned 40 percent of a U.S. joint venture between the two firms — Techmer Lehvoss Compounds — since 2004 until being bought out by Techmer.
Under that agreement, Techmer had been making Luvocom-brand compounds — which are based on engineering resins — at its plant in Clinton, Tenn., but that arrangement also ended in early 2012.
More recently, L&V's U.S. unit, operating as Lehvoss North America LLC, earlier this year debuted advanced PEEK compounds for products subject to extreme wear. Officials predict that the new PEEK compounds open up applications in automotive, industrial, medical and energy markets.
