Helios Center of Engineering Excellence opens following acquisition of BJN Technologies

Helios Technologies, the Sarasota, Fla., supplier of highly engineered motion control and electronic controls technology for diverse end markets, has acquired substantially all of the assets of BJN Technologies LLC, an engineering solutions provider.

With the acquisition, Helios has formed its Center of Engineering Excellence (HCEE) to augment and coordinate Helios’s technology advancements and new product development and better leverage existing talents with the acquired capabilities of BJN. Helios funded the acquisition through a combination of cash and equity. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“The acquisition of BJN and establishment of our Center of Engineering Excellence greatly enhances our ability to integrate complementary technology across the company. The capabilities and experience of the BJN team allows us to further advance our Vision 2025 strategy by executing on the value streams focused on product and technology expansion and market diversification. We are confident in the team’s engineering capability and, in fact, have been working with them for several years,” said Josef Matosevic, president and CEO, Helios.

“Combined with our recent addition of Balboa’s complementary technology to our Electronics solutions, this acquisition enables us to strategically expand our product portfolio in existing and new end markets first in the electronics segment and then throughout all of Helios.”

BJN is an employee-owned innovative engineering solutions provider that was founded in 2014. It provides customized turnkey solutions encompassing embedded software, wireless electronics and manufacturing in the defense, motion control and manufacturing industries, and has been an engineering service provider to Helios for several years. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, it employs approximately 15 engineers and technical staff.

The leadership team from BJN has joined Helios and will run the day-to-day operations of the HCEE.

Doug Conyers, who served as BJN’s CEO, has been named vice president, HCEE. The founders of BJN, the Kaufmann brothers, have joined the HCEE leadership team. Jonathan Kaufmann has been named chief engineer, Design, Benjamin Kaufmann has been named chief engineer, R&D and Nicholas Kaufmann has been named chief engineer, Innovation. The four leaders bring more than 70 years of combined experience to Helios in the engineering disciplines of electrical and software systems, simulation, embedded circuitry, and mechanical and testing design.

The Helios Center of Engineering Excellence will report to Rick Martich, who was recently appointed senior vice president of Global Manufacturing Operations for Helios. 

Helios Technologies is home to operating subsidiaries such as Sun Hydraulics LLC, Enovation Controls LLC, and Faster S.r.l.