Brush Engineered Materials Then WAM

The Williams family sold Williams Gold to Brush Engineered Materials in 1986 and in 1989 the name was changed to Williams Advanced Materials (WAM). In 1993, WAM expanded overseas. They opened an assembly operation with a Class 10,000 clean room in Singapore to service the Far East, including manufacturing, technical support and sales. They also added a facility in England to handle European sales.

Ever Expanding

In 1998, WAM acquired the Wheatfield, New York facility. This location currently houses Materion’s shield cleaning business and supports manufacturing in Buffalo, New York. Continuing their steady growth, WAM also added a state-of-the-art facility in Brewster, New York. With this purchase, they became the leading independent manufacturer of high purity sputtering targets and evaporation materials.

To further the expansion of microelectronic packaging offerings, in 2001 WAM acquired a company with locations in Mount Vernon, New York and Subic Bay, Philippines. WAM now produced Combo-Lids^TM, used for hermetical sealing of microelectronic packages for computer, microwave and opto-electronic applications.

Global Development

Continuing their quest to be a truly global company, a location in Taiwan was added in 2004 to serve key Taiwanese markets and provide an entry into mainland China. WAM expanded the shield cleaning business to Limerick, Ireland in 2005. This facility primarily provides precision cleaning and reconditioning services for PVD customers in the magnetic and optical data storage, semiconductor and other technology growth markets.

In 2006, CERAC, Inc. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin was acquired and broadened WAM’s technology reach. CERAC was distinguished for their 50+ years of expertise in organic, inorganic and physical vapor deposition materials. Their capabilities include reactive gas processing, sintering, milling, blending, solid-liquid-gas reaction systems, hot-pressing and machining.

Materion is Born

In March 2011, a re-organization simplified the corporate structure and aligned all subsidiary companies and locations into one company with one name and one goal – Materion. Together they represent a depth of knowledge, breadth of experience and broad range of products rarely found in other companies.

The Story Continues...

In March 2017 , we acquired from the Heraeus Group of Hanau, Germany, their target materials business. This strengthened Materion’s position in precious and non-precious target materials for the architectural and automotive glass, photovoltaic, display, and semiconductor markets. It also allowed expansion of our manufacturing capabiity in Europe, Asia and the U.S.  Together we are a manufacturing community with over 200 years of combined experience. With a rich history and a promising future, Materion can ensure another century of global innovation and dedicated service to our customers.

Making advanced materials
that improve the world.

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