EG's Yardney is Acquired by OM Group

East Greenwich high tech manufacturer Yardley Technical Products has been acquired by Cleveland, Ohio-based OM Group for $24 million in cash and will now operate under the technology company’s EaglePicher battery business.

OM Group announced the acquisition last week and company officials said in a release that the arrangement will be mutually beneficial for OM Group and Yardney, which brings advance lithium-ion technology and capabilities to OM Group and gives Yardney “a foothold into critical defense programs that are expected to grow at attractive rates.”

Yardney Technical Products, a subsidiary of ENER-TEK International, develops niche and speciality batteries needed for high demand and extreme environments. And it doesn’t get much more extreme than Mars, where Yardney batteries are still powering a Mars Rover -- going on 11 years strong.

Yadney moved to East Greenwich from Pawcatuck, Conn., in 2013 after buying the building at 2000 South County Trail.

The company has grown since then, itself acquiring Alcan Ltd. and Whittaker Corporation’s power systems division, which developed silver-zinc batteries for tactical missiles.

Other programs that have used Yardney batteries include the Air Force B-2 Bomber and Global Hawk/Triton reconnaissance aircraft, the NASA Phoenix Mars Lander mission and an advance all-electric mini-submarine for the U.S. Navy.

EaglePicher recently won a competitive project identified as the Lithium-Ion for Military Applications (LIMA) program to build lithium-ion manufacturing capability aimed at supporting the U.S. military. The acquisition will accelerate EaglePicher’s ability to address those needs, through a combination of each company’s lithium-ion capabilities for U.S. Government applications, along with possessing the technology path from silver-zinc to lithium-ion to meet customers’ needs for a wide range of solutions.