MAC Engineering & Equipment

What MAC Engineering & Equipment does

MAC Engineering & Equipment Company, Inc. is a privately held, Michigan-incorporated manufacturer of custom automated manufacturing equipment for the lead-acid battery industry, founded in 1965 by Charles McAlpine and operating from Benton Harbor, Michigan. The company designs and builds purpose-built machinery spanning the full battery production workflow — feeders, pasters (cast grid and continuous strip), flash dry ovens, parters, stackers, cast-on-strap (COS) machines, heat sealers, acid surfacers, and rack handling systems — under multiple product brands including optaMAC, dynaMAC, flowMAC, supraMAC, and MACvac, plus the Tiegel sub-brand for dry charge and water filtration. Equipment integrates on Allen-Bradley Control/Compact Logix PLCs with Panel View Plus HMIs and incorporates proprietary technologies such as MAC Thick Wall Hopper paste dispensing and FCC double-sided pasting.

The company operates a direct enterprise field-sales model: each customer is assigned a dedicated sales person and project engineer from consult through delivery, with field technicians for installation and ongoing after-sale support. Pricing is quote-based, with each machine purpose-built to customer specifications; the company does not publish list pricing. Beyond new equipment, MAC generates recurring revenue through spare parts (it is a certified supplier for CMWTEC in USA/Canada and Kustan in USA) and field service contracts.

MAC's geographic footprint combines a US headquarters with a wholly-owned India subsidiary (Pune) and a channel partnership with Sorfin Yoshimura providing sales coverage in USA (NY), France, China, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil, and Japan. The company maintains leadership continuity through founder-family Chairman Julie McAlpine McClure (succeeding original founder), President Doug Bornas, and an executive team including VP-level sales, engineering, and plant management roles. The company celebrated its 60th anniversary in April 2025.

Name

MAC Engineering & Equipment

Legal name

MAC Engineering & Equipment Company, Inc.

Website

https://mac-eng.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1965

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

MAC Engineering & Equipment is a Michigan-based, founder-owned manufacturer of custom automated manufacturing equipment for the lead-acid battery industry, serving global battery producers since 1965 with pasters, ovens, stackers, COS machines, and related line equipment under brands like optaMAC, dynaMAC, and supraMAC.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Lead-Acid Battery Manufacturing Equipment (Industrial Automation Machinery)

NAICS

Other General Purpose Machinery Manufacturing (3339), Commercial and Service Industry Machinery Manufacturing (3333)

SIC

Special Industry Machinery (No Metalworking Machinery) (3550)

akta.pro primary industry

End-of-Line Integration & Packaging Line Systems (IMAHAOAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Filling & Dosing Machines (Liquid/Powder/Solid) (IMAHAOAF), Conveying, Feeding & Accumulation Systems (Packaging Lines) (IMAHAOAK), Capping, Sealing & Closing Machines (IMAHAOAG)

Keywords

• Battery manufacturing equipment
• Automated assembly machinery
• Lead-acid battery production
• Industrial automation equipment
• Battery plate processing

Headquarters

HQ city

Benton Harbor

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices9 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Custom Industrial Automation Equipment Sales: Purpose-built custom automated manufacturing machinery for battery manufacturers. Each solution is designed to maximize customer production output and ROI. Machines include pasters, ovens, stackers, parters, and cast-on-strap equipment.
2. Spare Parts Supply: Spare parts for all MAC equipment with certified spare part supplier status for CMWTEC in USA and Canada, and Kustan in USA. Parts stocked and available for rapid delivery.
3. Field Service and Technical Support: After-sale service including field technicians for equipment setup, installation, and maintenance. Dedicated project engineers available throughout the process.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

MAC Engineering & Equipment designs and manufactures custom automated manufacturing machinery for the lead-acid battery industry, including battery plate pasters, flash dry ovens, high-speed stackers, parters, cast-on-strap (COS) systems, feeders, uncoilers, acid surfacers, heat sealers, paste handling systems, and Tiegel-branded drying and water-filtration equipment. Every machine is purpose-built to the customer's specifications with a dedicated sales person and project engineer; the company also supplies spare parts (including as a certified spare-part supplier for CMWTEC and Kustan) and provides field installation, commissioning, and after-sales technical support worldwide via its Benton Harbor, Michigan HQ, MAC Engineering India, and the Sorfin Yoshimura international representative network.

Product overview

MAC Engineering & Equipment is a custom industrial automation equipment manufacturer specializing in lead-acid battery manufacturing machinery. Their product portfolio includes multiple categories of equipment: Pasters (optaMAC X610, Steel Belt Paster, XM610, FOP, Industrial supraMAC) for applying paste to battery grids; Preparation equipment (MACparter 190, flowMAC Parter, XL200 Plate Prep System, Brushing/Blocking Station) for panel parting and lug processing; Ovens (optaMAC Flash Dry Oven, Industrial supraMAC Flash Dry Oven, SmartDry) for plate drying; Stackers (High Speed Stacker with In-Line Aligner, High Speed Stacker with Stack Aligner Brusher, Industrial Stacker) for plate stacking; COS machines (dynaMAC COS, Industrial COS) for cast-on-strap operations; Assembly equipment (Heat Sealer, Leak Tester); and accessory equipment including Feeders (optaMAC Feeder, MACvac Feeder), Paste Return, Hopper Leveling System, Paste Prep System, Uncoiler, Acid Surfacer, and Automatic Unload/Rack Handling System. They also offer the Tiegel sub-brand of dry charge and water filtration equipment. All equipment is designed to integrate within the MAC ecosystem for complete battery manufacturing lines.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• optaMAC: Product line of automated cast grid pasters and continuous strip pasters for battery manufacturing, including X610 and XM610 models.
• dynaMAC
• flowMAC
• MACvac
• supraMAC

Products and services

• optaMAC X610 Paster Automatic cast grid paster for lead-acid battery manufacturers, using a textured cotton belt to paste single or double panels and a MAC Thick Wall Hopper with controlled-pressure paste dispensing. Production capacity spans 90 to 610 plates per minute.
• MAC Steel Belt Paster with FCC Technology Continuous strip paster featuring FCC (Full Coverage Continuous) double-sided pasting technology on a high-tensile steel belt with orifice-plate tooling, for high-throughput battery plate manufacturing.
• optaMAC XM610 Paster Continuous strip paster that applies paper to the top and bottom of metal strips to improve adhesion, equipped with the MAC Thick Wall Hopper.
• MAC FOP (Fixed Orifice Paster) Fixed orifice paster using orifice plate type tooling that passes continuous strip between the top and bottom sides of the pasting orifice for double-sided coating.
• Industrial supraMAC Paster Hydraulic-powered industrial pasting machine with a 711mm standard hopper for heavy-duty industrial battery plate pasting, designed for better grid wire wrap-around, with greater than 95% operation uptime and less than 1% scrap.
• XL200 Plate Prep System Integrated system combining pasted panel parting, lug cleaning (brushed and/or milled), and panel stacking in one operation for formed panels, processing up to 200 panels per minute.
• MACparter 190 Battery panel parter that combines panel parting, lug brushing, and lug trimming in a single operation while reducing lead-in-air exposure.
• flowMAC Parter Automatic plate parter that receives panels from the flash dry oven, coordinates plate positioning, brushes lugs on both sides, and trims lugs for uniform production at up to 200 panels per minute.
• MAC Brushing/Blocking Station Free-standing unit that removes excess paste from the bottom and/or sides of pasted grid stacks using rotating brushes with a collection drawer.
• optaMAC Flash Dry Oven Battery plate flash dry oven with a 7036 mm heated section using 100% convection heat, available in gas or electric versions, with 1,750 CFM power-assisted exhaust and 20-25% energy savings versus comparable ovens.
• Industrial supraMAC Flash Dry Oven Industrial flash dry oven with a heat range up to 1.5 million BTU/hr (gas) or 1.6 million BTU/hr (electric), designed for commercial plate drying requirements.
• MAC High Speed Stacker with In-Line Aligner Automatic stacking machine that stacks parted cast or continuous plates at speeds up to 55 m (180 ft) per minute, with a built-in aligning system using Allen-Bradley Control/Compact Logix.
• MAC High Speed Stacker with Stack Aligner Brusher Automated battery plate stacker that aligns and brushes plates in a single process, stacking at speeds up to 55 m per minute with an enclosed brushing station.
• MAC Industrial Stacker High-speed stacker for industrial-sized pasted plates, brushing edges and stacking plates received from an industrial flash dry oven at up to 100 plates per minute.
• dynaMAC COS Cast-on-strap (COS) machine that processes 1-2 batteries per cycle with automated brushing, fluxing, and casting operations and tight mold water-cooling rate tuning; capable of producing over 1,000 six-cell batteries in 8 hours.
• MAC Industrial COS Fully automated cast-on-strap machine for large industrial cells, featuring a robotic arm for automated brushing, flux-tin-flux treatment, and mold casting.
• MAC Heat Sealer (E-164 Automatic / E-157 Manual) Electric battery jar sealer available in automatic (E-164) and manual (E-157) models, welding the cover to the battery jar using four independent welding assemblies.
• MAC Automatic Unload and Rack Handling System Palletizing and automatic rack handling system that loads stacked plates at up to 55 m per minute onto racks or pallets, with robotic slip-sheet placement, on Allen-Bradley Control/Compact Logix with Panel View Plus.
• MAC Uncoiler Continuous strip uncoiler that feeds spooled or coiled grids onto the pasting line, available in horizontal or vertical models with auto loop control.
• MAC Acid Surfacer Automatic compact machine that applies acid coating to both sides of plates for harder finish and better paste-to-grid bonding, handling up to 305 panels per minute.
• optaMAC Feeder Premium battery plate grid feeder with a 914 mm storage magazine providing 50% more capacity than other feeders, integrating seamlessly with MAC pasters.
• MACvac Feeder Vacuum pick-up battery plate grid feeder designed for handling and parting soft or pure lead grids, operating at speeds up to 170 panels per minute.
• MAC Paste Return Variable-speed paste return machine that automatically returns excess paste to the hopper to reduce waste, available in automotive and industrial models.
• MAC Hopper Leveling System Servo-driven automatic leveling system that replaces hand cranking to adjust hopper positions, with 0.25 mm precision increments.
• MAC Paste Prep System Paste nugget crusher that processes large paste nuggets between counter-rotating rolls to prevent line stoppages and ensure smoother plate finish.
• Tiegel SmartDry Plate Dryer Dry-charge smart dryer for battery plate drying, part of the Tiegel sub-brand product line distributed alongside MAC equipment.
• Tiegel Wash Maximizer Water filtration system for battery manufacturing, part of the Tiegel sub-brand product line distributed alongside MAC equipment.
• Tiegel Group Burning Machines Group burning equipment for LO, JO, and WO battery configurations, part of the Tiegel sub-brand product line distributed alongside MAC equipment.
• MAC Spare Parts Supply and Field Service / Technical Support Aftermarket offering covering spare parts for all MAC equipment plus certified spare-part supply for CMWTEC (USA and Canada) and Kustan (USA), together with on-site field technician installation, setup, and maintenance services and dedicated project engineer support delivered globally.

Quantifiable outcome

• Equipment uptime exceeding 95% with less than 1% scrap anticipated
• +4 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• CMWTECcoreOthersMAC is certified spare part supplier for CMWTEC in the USA and Canada. This partnership allows MAC to provide CMWTEC equipment spare parts as part of their after-sales service offering.
• Kustan GmbHcoreOthersMAC is certified spare part supplier for Kustan in the USA. Provides spare parts supply capability for Kustan equipment to North American customers.
• Sorfin YoshimuracoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorGlobal sales representative network handling MAC product sales in USA (NY), France, China, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil, and Japan markets. Multiple offices provide regional coverage for battery industry customers worldwide.
• Battery Council International (BCI)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMAC is a proud member of Battery Council International, the leading trade association representing the North American battery industry. Provides industry collaboration, standards development, and networking opportunities.
• Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMAC is a member of Consortium for Battery Innovation, the only global pre-competitive research organization promoting innovation in lead batteries. CBI has over 120 members and partners globally including battery manufacturers, suppliers, and research institutions.
• Women in the Global Battery IndustryminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMAC supports Women in the Global Battery Industry organization, showing commitment to diversity and inclusion in the battery manufacturing sector.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Manz AG: German automation specialist serving lithium-ion battery cell production, electronics, and other industries. Represents the type of larger, well-capitalized automation competitor that MAC would face if it pivots from lead-acid to lithium-ion production equipment.
• Digatron Systems: Global supplier of battery formation and test equipment, predominantly for lead-acid and lithium cells. Sells to many of the same battery manufacturers as MAC but focuses on the formation/testing stage rather than plate making.
• Bitrode (a Sovema brand): Manufacturer of battery formation, testing, and charging equipment for lead-acid and lithium batteries. Serves many of the same OEM customers as MAC for downstream testing processes, making it an adjacent incumbent in the broader battery production equipment space.

Direct peers

• Wirtz Manufacturing: US-based manufacturer of continuous grid casting and battery plate production equipment for lead-acid batteries. Direct competitor in the same product categories (pasters, casters, plate processing) and similar customer base of North American battery manufacturers.
• Kustan GmbH: German manufacturer of battery production equipment including COS (cast-on-strap), assembly, and plate processing lines. While MAC is a certified spare parts supplier for Kustan in the USA, the two companies compete in core equipment categories globally.
• Sovema Group: Italian manufacturer of lead-acid and lithium battery production equipment including curing chambers, plate processing, and formation. MAC already co-brands a 'Sovema by MAC Curing Chamber' product, confirming tight product overlap and channel relationship in the same niche.
• CMWTEC (CMW Teknik): Chinese/German battery equipment manufacturer with broad coverage of lead-acid battery production lines including plate making, formation, and assembly. Direct competitor to MAC with global installed base; MAC is a certified spare parts supplier for CMWTEC in USA/Canada.

Others

• Sorfin Yoshimura: Global sales representative network for battery production equipment. While technically a channel partner to MAC, Sorfin also represents competing equipment lines in some markets, making it a strategic dependency as well as an adjacent ecosystem player.

Market position

Strengths6 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mac-engineering-and-equipment-co-inc-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about MAC Engineering & Equipment