Business

Industrial Physics, the global packaging, material, and coating test and measurement group backed by KKR-affiliated investment funds, has announced the acquisition of Vitrek, a US-based provider of electronic test and precision measurement equipment, from the Branford Castle Fund, LP, which is managed by Branford Castle Partners, LP.

Teledyne Technologies Incorporated and Varex Imaging Corporation have jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Teledyne will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Varex. The aggregate value for the transaction is approximately $1.1 billion, taking into account Varex’s equity awards and net debt as of April 3, 2026.

Shelfmark, a Physical AI company providing production intelligence for continuous-flow manufacturing, has announced a $3.5 million seed round to bring greater autonomy to one of manufacturing’s most overlooked environments: the fast-moving lines that produce materials on reels, rolls and continuous webs.

OPT Machine Vision Tech Co., Ltd., a Chinese developer of machine vision hardware and software components for factory automation, has filed a prospectus with the Shanghai Stock Exchange to issue up to 1.27 billion yuan ($178 million USD) in convertible corporate bonds.

Cognex Corporation, a global technology leader in industrial machine vision, has reported record revenue for the second quarter ended July 5, 2026, as broad-based demand across its major end markets combined with continued growth in AI-enabled vision applications.

North American companies ordered 8,940 robots valued at $622 million in the second quarter of 2026, according to new data released by the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). Compared to the second quarter of 2025, this represents a 4.3% increase in units ordered and a 21.3% increase in revenue.

New orders of metalworking machinery, measured by the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by The Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT), totaled $672.7 million in June 2026.

Onto Innovation has announced the successful closing of its previously announced acquisition of a 27% minority equity stake in Rigaku Holdings Corporation from Atom Investment, L.P., an affiliate of Carlyle, for approximately US$720 million.