TPC’s advanced manufacturing offers unparalleled precision and performance to industry leaders worldwide.
The ten advanced manufacturing centers at the heart of The Partner Companies deliver critical components to industry-leading manufacturers serving various markets, including defense, renewable energy, medical, technology, aerospace, and more.
TPC’s Power of Ten provides its clients decades of collective industry experience, manufacturing expertise, entrepreneurial spirit, collaborative synergy, and renowned customer service.
Experience, expertise, cooperation, and service were TPC’s guiding principles in its earliest days and remain a focus today, especially as the company’s reach expands internationally.
A Journey Through History
Co-founders Dan Brumlik and Scott Bekemeyer started their expansive journey when they launched The Partner Companies back in 1997 with the acquisition of Fotofab, the Chicago-based company with a 50-year history of excellence providing a wide range of high-precision metal fabricating services to produce components with simple to very complex geometries from over 50 different metal alloys.
After that initial acquisition, TPC gradually enlisted organizations that fit its mission of manufacturing precision components and parts through diverse means — from sheet metal fabrication to photochemical etching to ceramic metallization — and for various industries.
The company acquired Elcon Precision in 2011, followed five years later by Optiforms and Lattice Materials. In 2019, TPC entered a period of sustained strategic growth, with E-Fab and Microphoto joining the network that year. Since 2020, L&T Precision, PEI, Pinnacle Precision, and most recently, UPG have been acquisitions that expand the company’s expertise and capabilities.
TPC now has an interlaced network with companies in different parts of the United States — the West Coast, Midwest, South, and Northeast — and worldwide, with manufacturing centers in Wales, China, and Mexico.
Core-Manufacturing Capabilities
TPC’s operating companies excel in core manufacturing competencies, encompassing photochemical etching, injection molding, machining, metal fabrication, and finishing, all with a keen eye on design for manufacturing (DFM) principles. DFM is an integral part of this game plan and can only benefit TPC’s partners and their clients in the future.
Manufacturing precision components and assemblies are at the center of the TPC universe. Expert engineers, manufacturers, and quality assurance professionals work with an assortment of metals, plastics, and materials to deliver essential pieces for the world’s most important industries.
The diversity found within TPC’s roster is one of its greatest strengths — the Power of 10. Such diversity and possibilities give long-term and potential clients many service options when determining how to proceed with a new project. The ever-growing network can work together to provide customers with the best possible solutions for their needs.
The Individual Powers Within 10
Individually, TPC’s advanced manufacturing centers are heavyweights in their own right. United, they become even stronger.
Optiforms is a leading precision metal components and thin film optical coatings provider.
E-Fab, PEI, Fotofab, Elcon Precision, and Microphoto specialize in photochemical etching, forming, and bonding thin metal parts, from rapid prototypes to production runs.
PEI specializes in manufacturing photochemically etched titanium electrolyzer bipolar plates used by leading renewable energy companies and produces parts from other metal alloys used in medical, microelectronics, and defense applications. Microphoto works with various metals, including aluminum, copper alloys, and stainless and spring steel. Beyond photochemical etching, Elcon creates precision components through brazed assembly and ceramic metallization.
Pinnacle Precision is a precision metal fabricator and total assembly provider. L&T Precision provides peerless machining and sheet metal fabrication services, including custom manufacturing, turnkey integration, welding services, and metal finishing.
Lattice Materials grows custom silicon and germanium crystals to deliver optics, thin film materials, laser mirrors, and semiconductor parts through precision optical-curve generation, high-precision polishing, and machining.
UPG is a leading manufacturer and supplier of plastic injection-molded components and assemblies to data centers, automotive, healthcare, energy, and industrial sectors. The company’s UPtyma division services data center needs with KVM rackmount console kits, LCD monitors, and blanking panels.
The Industries We Serve
TPC’s members contribute precision parts for various applications across many industries.
Optiforms produces parts used in thermal imaging cameras, gas leak monitors, the Space Shuttle’s launch pads, and the 9/11 “Tribute In Light” memorial.
Trusted by leading global OEMs, UPG offers a diverse portfolio of plastic components and assemblies catering to technology, automotive, medical, consumer goods, and defense industries. Its blue-chip clients include Dell, IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Honeywell, Medtronic, and Bosch, and its UPtyma division offers several products that increase productivity in data centers worldwide.
PEI is a trusted supplier of bipolar electrolyzer plates, a critical component that facilitates the separation of hydrogen from water. The resultant hydrogen generated from this procedure can be directly injected into gas grids, used in fuel and green chemicals production, and used in hydrogen fuel cell applications for trains, buses, and trucks.
Fotofab components are used for microwave antennas, drones, avionics, GPS systems, radar circuitry, remote monitoring and control systems, and board-level EMI/RFI shields.
Global Expansion and Long-Term Strategy
Some members within TPC’s network have been serving a global clientele for many years. Two partners — L&T Precision and UPG — have physical plants beyond U.S. borders to help serve client needs.
L&T Precision expanded into Tijuana, Mexico, in November of 2023, opening a 50,000-square-foot production facility that doubles the company’s footprint and production capabilities. This location will serve industrial equipment markets and medical technology industries across the world, and it will primarily produce precision sheet metal components and assemblies, with expansion opportunities for additional manufacturing capabilities.
UPG has three manufacturing facilities — Houston, Texas, Cardiff, Wales, and Suzhou, China — that employ more than 500 people and offer a complete range of capabilities from design to final delivery.
The company’s state-of-the-art Houston hub provides precision injection molding, assembly, automation, and contract manufacturing. In October 2019, the plant – which produces plastic and metal components and circuit boards for the data center and energy sectors – underwent a 17,000-square-foot expansion to 60,000 total square footage.
UPG’s Cardiff, Wales facility manufactures components for the data center, automotive, industrial/consumer, and healthcare/medical end markets. The Suzhou facility in China is the manufacturing alternative for UPG’s Asian market that provides precision injection molding, micro-molding, assembly and testing, and contract manufacturing.
By broadening into a multifaceted and multinational corporation, TPC is following a long-term strategy of identifying and acquiring companies that expand its capabilities and capacity to serve customers in several markets better.
The tech sector is a vital part of the game plan. TPC also invests strongly in serving renewable energy initiatives, including solar power and hydrogen, to help inspire a carbon-neutral future. Defense, aerospace, medical, and technology markets are consistently a focus of TPC’s centers.
TPC management remains focused on solving supply chain issues by near- and re-shoring efforts and staying ahead of challenges faced by growing industries.
Strictly Certified
The Partner Companies adhere to stringent requirements to meet specific certifications – including ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) – that ensure that the work is carried out under strict security standards and with superior quality control.
Bold New Frontiers
Each TPC manufacturing center provides unparalleled customer service, adapts to changing demands, and provides manufacturing expertise that allows for the delivery of precision parts, components, and solutions.
The TPC companies leverage the unique properties of metals, materials, and plastics for proof-of-concept prototypes and production runs.
Each company commits its expertise, capabilities, and experiences to meet its customers’ requirements, offering dependable resources and new technological approaches when needed.
Plus, each manufacturing center leverages the expertise of its sister companies to push innovation, deliver just-in-time parts and components, and expand its capabilities.
TPC’s Power of Ten stands ready to help. Let’s connect and find a solution to your most pressing need.
