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Kuka Systems acquires Utica Companies' plant engineering business

Kuka Systems Group, Sterling Heights, Mich., has acquired the plant engineering business of privately owned Utica Companies of Shelby Township, Mich., a welding equipment specialist and supplier to the automobile industry.

Kuka Systems is a provider of production line automation, flexible manufacturing concepts, and robotic cells for specific assembly processes, including new welding technologies for joining steel to steel or metals with different thermal coefficients.

The acquisition primarily covers automobile assembly-related assets in southeastern Michigan. Kuka absorbs Utica's body structure business that builds car body assembly lines and subsystems, as well as products such as laser welding heads; net form and pierce systems for joining body sections; standard pressroom automation for metal stamping; and hang-on technologies for installing doors, hoods, and other parts on assembly lines.

About 300 Utica employees have joined Kuka Systems. No jobs are being eliminated.