PSS to acquire wafering division of Meyer Burger

Precision Surfacing Solutions (formerly Lapmaster Wolters Group) is a leading global supplier of equipment and services for precision lapping, polishing, grinding, and honing.

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Precision Surfacing Solutions (formerly Lapmaster Wolters Group), a leading global supplier of equipment and services for precision lapping, polishing, grinding, and honing, announced that it will acquire the photovoltaic and specialized substrate material (for semiconductor and sapphire industries) wafering equipment and service business of Meyer Burger (based in Thun, Switzerland).

Brian Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of PSS: "The acquisition of Meyer Burger's wafering technology portfolio will further enable us to strengthen and grow our activities in our key markets, particularly in the semiconductor and consumer electronic segments. Our cutting edge Peter Wolters AC microLine technology (produced in Rendsburg, Germany) is already utilized by leading substrate wafer manufacturers and we feel that the addition of the MB wafering line will enable significant cross selling opportunities with our existing customer base and also provide the opportunity to offer unrivaled global service and technical support.

PSS intends to use the know-how of Meyer Burger's local workforce and to continue product development as well as manufacturing activities in non-PV wafering applications in Thun (Switzerland), where it has entered into a long-term rental agreement with Meyer Burger. Activities for production of photovoltaic wafering systems will remain in China. PSS will further maintain global service support for all current and future wafering customers worldwide. PSS will take over around 70 employees at the Thun location and an additional 26 globally. PSS Group Chief Technical Officer, Brett Rosenthal, further commented: "The acquisition of Meyer Burger provides PSS Group with a number of talented engineering and technical employees. I look forward to them joining my global engineering team and leveraging their expertise within the Group."

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