Above: Vaski built its punch line to be extremely precise, because the holes and slots must be accurate for fitments
September, 2026- TK Accelis Materials Plus, a division of TK Accelis (which was rebranded in June from thyssenkrupp Materials) is a metal sales, processing and service organization that spent a large chunk of its 95 years in business as Copper and Brass Sales.
Based in Southfield, Michigan, this division has served the North American electrical industry since 1931, building a reputation for materials expertise, precision processing and customer-focused manufacturing solutions, says TK Accelis Materials Plus President James Patsakos.
The division supports manufacturing customers throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico with strategically located service centers, fabrication capabilities, inventory management and integrated supply chain solutions.
According to Patsakos, Materials Plus serves such markets as power distribution, data centers and utility infrastructure, renewable energy and battery energy storage systems, industrial electrification and electrical equipment manufacturers, among other sectors.
It provides a host of manufacturing capabilities, including precision CNC punching, servoelectric busbar processing, CNC bending, machining, sawing, waterjet cutting, drilling, tapping, threading, deburring, component kitting, inventory management and more.
The metals industry must keep its technology current with the evolving and exacting requirements of its customers. For example, electricity powers daily activity globally but can become dangerous if the parts, systems and equipment through which the power flows fall below the necessary quality and performance standards.
Pivatic Inc. builds automated sheet metal fabrication equipment, including PivaPunch punching systems, PivaBend bending machines and shears; it also integrates systems for its customers—one of which is TK Accelis Materials Plus.
PUNCHING SOLUTION
“Transformers and switching stations all need busbar,” and metal processors that supply parts to these sectors “need to punch metal bar, says Pivatic President Jamie Sims. The need is especially urgent with the increased demand from the data center industry.
Founded in 1975 in Finland, Pivatic was acquired by Vaski Group, also a Finnish company, in 2024. Pivatic and Vaski both manufacture automated punching lines and Pivatic distributes the VaskiPunch machine alongside its own machinery.
“We are able to provide quick lead times,” Sims notes. “We can have machines built in four months. Our competitors’ lead times are a year or more; that’s how we broke into this market so quickly. We have a great order book for these. Our capacity is seven machines a month. We may have to expand on that.”
Flat bar punching enables the high-precision processing of busbars and flat bars for energy, electrical and industrial applications, according to Vaski. Designed for automated production environments, the VaskiPunch line integrates punching, threading, marking and cutting into a single efficient workflow. Flexible tooling and CNC-controlled operation allow fast changeovers and support the processing of copper, aluminum and steel.
Sims says that a typical application is a copper bar, up to 20 feet long. Most of the parts are assembled inside a cabinet built for switch gear equipment. “It takes a lot of electricity to keep a data center running. There is so much amperage that you have to use big thick copper bar instead of wires.”
Depending on the application, the VaskiPunch be used to punch, tap and part mark copper and aluminum busbar. “The holes are punched for the fitment and assembly of bolts. The holes must be very precise or they cannot fit it together,” Sims explains.
There is a concern about heating the metal too much while processing, he continues. “To further increase conductivity, some companies put on a thin silver plating right from the mill. The bottom line is you cannot have any surface defects or scratches whatsoever, so we work on different solutions to prevent that.”
For example, for many applications, “you cannot have any sharp edges on bar.” To solve that, “we have a little milling machine that removes any sharp edges to prevent arcing of electricity as power runs through the bar,” Sims says.
“The busbar industry is different than others. They have their own way of programming. We moved more toward a model like unfolding 3D drawings. We are trying to replicate that with precision metal forming.” The company’s proprietary VaskiCAM software “unfolds model parts and assign punches to specific geometries,” similar to other software systems in the market.
Grid modernization, AI, hyperscale data centers and renewable energy are among the markets demanding busbar.
CLOSE COLLABORATION
“The enhancements on our machines are a result of working with TK Accelis, so it has been mutually beneficial,” Sims says.
Patsakos agrees. “The collaboration between TK Accelis, Vaski and Pivatic has grown into a long-term engineering partnership focused on continuous innovation and manufacturing excellence. Working side by side from implementation through ongoing production, both organizations have jointly refined tooling, software, automation, operator workflow and manufacturing processes to streamline production, improve throughput, enhance dimensional repeatability, reduce setup and changeover times, and optimize copper and aluminum busbar fabrication,” he says.
Through continuous collaboration and shared engineering expertise, Patsakos says this partnership continues to evolve. Together, the companies are “developing innovative manufacturing solutions that improve productivity, strengthen sustainability, enhance quality and help establish new benchmarks for precision busbar manufacturing across the North American electrical industry.”
He credits Vaski’s fully servo-electric manufacturing technology with supporting TK Accelis’ operational sustainability objectives by improving energy efficiency, eliminating hydraulic oil systems, reducing maintenance requirements, increasing output and creating a cleaner production environment. The punch lines deliver “exceptional precision and repeatability,” he says.
MARKET OUTLOOK
“The North American power transmission and distribution market has experienced sustained growth since 2019 and is projected by multiple industry analysts to continue expanding at a 4 to 5 percent compound annual growth rate through at least 2035,” says Patsakos. This growth is being “driven by grid modernization, artificial intelligence, hyperscale data centers, renewable energy, battery energy storage systems and industrial electrification.”
Pivatic Inc., 847/214-8700, http://pivatic.com/
TK Accelis Materials Plus, 947/517-7575, http://materialsplus.com/
Vaski Inc., 281/202-3771, http://vaski.com/
