No doubt manufacturing has steadily evaporated here, but Ametek Inc., of Paoli, has been acquiring quite a collection of subsidiaries all over the world.
Ametek could be one of the quietest publicly held $2 billion companies around. Its operations are scattered across 19 states and 10 foreign countries. But occasionally Ametek does a local deal. Yesterday, it bought Newage Testing Instruments Inc. , of Southampton. Unless you're into testing the hardness of metals, Newage is not likely to be familiar.
But it's the kind of company that Ametek seeks out for its customers in the aerospace, industrial, process and power markets. Ametek does have one claim to fame: It boasts that it is the world's largest maker of "air-moving electric motors" for vacuum cleaners.
