Cognex has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell the assets of its Surface Inspection Systems Division (SISD) to Ametek, Inc. for approximately $160 million in cash. Closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Following completion of this transaction, Cognex will schedule a conference call to discuss the sale and to provide updated financial guidance.

“The sale of our Surface Inspection Systems Division is a strategic decision for us,” says Robert J. Willett, president and CEO of Cognex. “SISD is a profitable and well-managed business, but it does not fit Cognex’s long-term objectives and business model. With this sale, we can focus all of our efforts on discrete manufacturing where we see continued strong growth for our vision and ID products.”

Surface inspection sales were $60 million, or 12% of Cognex’s total revenue, in 2014.

“Cognex entered the surface inspection market in 1996 with the acquisition of Isys Controls, Inc, a small company that had developed vision systems for automatically detecting and classifying flaws and defects on the surfaces of materials as they are being produced at high speeds in a continuous fashion,” says Robert J. Shillman, chairman and chief culture officer of Cognex. “We are proud to have built this business from an organization which was primarily selling into the U.S. metals market, into a leading global supplier of surface inspection systems for metals, paper, plastics, nonwovens and glass.”