WIXOM, MI-Wenzel GmbH of Germany has acquired Xspect Solutions Inc. (Wixom, MI). Xspect Solutions has been the distribution partner of Wenzel in North America since its formation in 2002, and has been the Wenzel Distributor of the Year for both 2005 and 2006. Xspect has engineered market penetration in the United States, which now represents the largest market for Wenzel CMM products outside of its domestic German market. Xspect Solutions supplies new Wenzel CMMs with its OpenDMIS software to the North American markets, and Xspect Solutions annual sales exceeded $15 million in 2006. Its corporate customers include John Deere, General Electric, TRW, Federal-Mogul, Cummins, Delphi and Whirlpool. Details of the sale were not disclosed.

The acquisition of Xspect Solutions by Wenzel will allow further investments and market growth; plans include the immediate commencement of local assembly of Wenzel Xorbit and LH series of bridge-style coordinate measuring machines in Wixom, MI. The existing manufacturing facilities in Germany were producing at full capacity in 2006; additional capacity is being added in Germany and a local assembly plant in Shanghai, China, came on-stream in 2006 to assemble kits supplied from Wenzel Germany serving the increasing local Chinese market.