Among products made by Ibis Tek, based in Middlesex Township, are transparent and opaque armor. The firm that owns Ibis Tek bought Standard Bent Glass, based in East Butler. The product is one area the two companies will collaborate. This example of their work is from the Ibis Tek website.

An investment firm is fusing two Butler County manufacturing companies that produce industrial and military grade glass products.

The firm, Rockwood Equity Partners, owns the Middlesex Township-based Ibis Tek, a company known for making bullet-resistant glass for the military with its main office on Pittsburgh Road.

On Jan. 7th, the firm announced that it bought Standard Bent Glass (SBG), based in East Butler, which the firm touted in a news release as “a leader in security and defense glass products for more than 30 years. Its Department of Defense product line is one of the most extensive in the country.”

Representatives from both companies declined to give financial details of the purchase.

“Standard Bent Glass is a perfect, 'hand in glove' strategic fit with Ibis Tek,” said Vince Nardy, Ibis Tek CEO, in a prepared statement. “(Standard Bent Glass') capability to fabricate specialty glass, together with Ibis Tek's expertise in commercial vehicles, now provide significant opportunities to take on new programs that leverage our combined expertise in providing armored solutions to the military, as well as complementary vehicle capabilities.”

Among SBG's customers is the U.S. Department of Defense.

With the purchase of Standard Bent Glass, the investment firm now possesses the largest supplier of bullet resistant glass, known as transparent armor, for the Department of Defense, according to the news release.

In the statement, the firm notes that “significant growth opportunities (are) in reach” for the new company. A new name for the combined entity has yet to be announced.

Mike Hartley, who served as CEO of Standard Bent Glass, is now retiring. He said he will serve on the combined company's board.

“Fifteen years ago, the two neighboring companies first worked together to offer transparent armor products in support of our military,” he said in the news release. “It is exciting to see that relationship come full circle, now as a combined enterprise that will provide one-stop-shop capabilities with flat and curved transparent armor, metal fabrication, certified welding, paint and coating, electrical assembly and system integration for vehicle unfitting.”In phone interviews Sunday, both Hartley and Nardy said the two companies' full staffs would be retained at the new merged firm. Ibis Tek employs about 250, while Standard Bent Glass employs about 125.Both men said their companies have viewed each other as competitors in recent years, but are now happy to be working together again.“We have a lot of respect for Mike and Kent,” Nardy said. “They've built a very nice business. They're really stand-up individuals.”Kent, Mike's son, is COO of Standard Bent Glass.“The two companies together will be stronger than they were individually,” Mike Hartley said.One example of their upcoming collaboration, Mike Hartley said, are in frames for transparent armor. Ibis Tek makes the frames, he said, while Standard Bent Glass bought them.Nardy said talks of merging mostly occurred over the last six months.They're floating a few potential names for the new company, Nardy said, but aren't ready to announce one yet.<em>Eagle staff writer Tanner Cole contributed to this report.</em>

A worker measures a piece of bent glass before cutting it to its finished size at the Standard Bent Glass plant in East Butler.