Brady and Amistar Form Strategic Partnership for Automatic Identification Solutions.

Business Editors

MILWAUKEE & SAN MARCOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 20, 2000

Brady Corp. (NYSE:BRC), a world leader in identification solutions, and Amistar Corp. (NASDAQ:AMTA), an innovator in automation equipment for printed circuit board assembly, Thursday announced the formation of a strategic partnership.

Under the terms of the agreement, Brady Worldwide Inc. will market Amistar's DataPlace(R) model automated label printing and application systems to the electronics manufacturing industry, and Amistar will include Brady labels in its offering to meet customers' identification needs.

"This strategic alliance will enable manufacturers to cost-effectively automate their labeling requirements for work-in-process tracking and bill-of-material compliance. By combining Amistar's long history of delivering leading-edge component-placement machines, vision systems and software control tools for circuit card assembly with Brady's industry-leading position in high-performance label materials, electronic manufacturers now have the best possible identification solution for automated assembly," said Amistar President Stuart Baker. "We chose Brady as our partner due to their global presence and outstanding engineering and production capabilities. Using the highest quality label and ribbon materials is essential to implementing high-performance, high-reliability identification systems. We believe Brady brings the 'best in class' consumables to the market."

"We are pleased to add the DataPlace printer applicator to Brady's full range of identification solutions," said Matt Williamson, vice president and general manager of Brady's global High-Performance Identification Solutions business. "We look forward to continued innovation and support from Amistar as we strive to meet our global customers' needs for identification to improve productivity and performance."

Brady, founded in 1914, is the world leader in developing and manufacturing high-performance identification solutions including specialty labels and tapes, printing systems, software, and data-collection systems. With its strong materials-science expertise built over more than 80 years, Brady develops and manufactures a broad range of high-quality materials with special performance characteristics including static dissipation, high cleanliness, low ion content, high adhesion, and resistance to high temperature, abrasion, or solvents.

Brady also leads in developing, producing, and marketing a variety of specialty portable and desktop thermal-transfer printing systems and software for automatic identification and data collection to serve the electronics, telecommunication and manufacturing markets. Brady has headquarters in Milwaukee, and employs more than 3,000 people in operations in 20 countries in North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America. Brady has annual sales of more than $500 million. More information is available on the Internet at www.bradycorp.com.

Amistar Corp., founded in 1971, designs, manufactures, sells, and provides customer service for automated component-placement machines for the electronics industry. Widely known for insertion and SMD placement machines, in 1999 Amistar expanded its equipment business with its DataPlace Model 100LP multi-axis labeling system to meet the industry's growing needs for automated labeling of electronic assembly products.

Amistar's DataPlace system sets new standards for automated PCB and electronic product labeling by delivering superior speed, reliability, flexibility and network connectivity. The DataPlace system capitalizes on Amistar's 28 years of machine design and manufacturing experience in developing sophisticated component-handling mechanisms, control systems, interface software and machine vision systems. With capabilities that support inline and standalone applications, the DataPlace system is easily integrated into an electronics assembly process using a SMEMA-compliant conveyor and TCP/IP communication protocols.

Among the machine's many features are rapid placement rates to match high speed assembly applications (up to 3,600 parts per hour), sophisticated serialization management, and machine vision for linear and 2D barcode recognition and validation. In addition, the DataPlace's flexible dual placement head design can pick different label materials and sizes, or the same material and size, from up to three tray-mounted 600 dpi thermal transfer printers.

DataPlace is a registered trademark of Amistar Corp.