Stockton tech firm signs deal with Exide

By Reed Fujii

Record Staff Writer

Posted Sep. 30, 2014 @ 7:41 pm

Stockton-based American Micro Detection Systems said Tuesday it has a deal to supply car battery-maker Exide Technologies with instruments to check for dissolved metals in discharge water from Exide’s U.S. recycling plants.

Robert Keville, American Micro’s chief executive, said he expects to provide Exide with at least six of the company’s REX instruments, worth a total of about $750,000.

The deal was signed at Exide’s Southern California recycling center in Vernon, which processes about 8,000 batteries a day.

American Micro’s instruments will help Exide keep dissolved metals out of its discharge water, especially lead from the vehicle batteries, which it can resell.

“Their need is for us to tell them what is in their recycling water,” Keville said Tuesday. “They are honestly trying hard to be good stewards of the environment. They are investing a lot of money into this.”

Wilson Durant, Exide process engineer leader, said the American Micro instruments will help his operation improve its water treatment and record compliance with water-quality regulations.

"We expect Exide and AMDS to have a very productive long-term relationship," he said in a statement.

American Micro says its REX instruments are unique in providing automated, real-time detection of multiple dissolved metals in constant flows of water. They are self-calibrating and require no added materials.

Keville also said Stockton-based American Micro, which manufactures its instruments in Milwaukee, has plans to bring its product assembly and test operation — located in Auburn — to Stockton in the near future. The move would also bring about 30 jobs, mostly technical positions requiring electronics and electrical-mechanical skills, to the community.

American Micro has been working with the San Joaquin Partnership to identify potential locations for the assembly and test facility.

Exide is in a reorganization under Bankruptcy Court protection. Its Vernon recycling plant, idled since March, is now installing new equipment and developing new procedures in order to meet increasingly tough air-pollution regulations. It has been cited by environmental officials for emissions of lead and arsenic, according to news reports.

http://www.recordnet.com/article/20140930/NEWS/140939955