(Chicago) from Industrial Growth Partners for approximately $159 million in cash. Atlas, which is forecast to have 2011 sales of approximately $85 million, is headquartered in Chicago with additional manufacturing operations in Germany and a network of outdoor and laboratory testing facilities around the globe, including North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

In addition to its indoor and outdoor weather testing sites, the company manufactures and sells weather exposure test systems, corrosion-testing instruments, specialty lighting systems, and large-scale weathering test chambers. The company's weather-testing services include photovoltaic and solar testing, with customers working in aerospace, paint, coating, plastics, pharmaceutical, LED, and automotive.

Ametek described Atlas as a market leader in the weathering niche, saying it will become part of its Measurement & Calibration Technologies (M&CT) unit, a division of the company's Electronic Instruments Group (EIG). That business, which supplies monitoring, testing, calibrating, and display instruments, generated 2010 sales of approximately $1.3 billion.