National Technical Systems, Inc. ("NTS"), the leading independent provider of environmental simulation testing, inspection, and certification solutions in the United States, announced today that it has acquired Trace Laboratories. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Trace Laboratories, an internationally accredited, full-service testing laboratory, has approximately 45,000 square feet of testing facilities in Palatine, IL, a suburb of Chicago, and Hunt Valley, MD, a suburb of Baltimore. The acquisition of the Palatine facility, which will become NTS Chicago, further strengthens NTS' leading and sole nationwide network of environmental simulation testing capabilities, including dynamics, climatic, EMI/EMC, lightning, product safety, mechanical, and fluids testing.

The Hunt Valley facility, which will become NTS Baltimore, adds materials testing capabilities to NTS' fully comprehensive offering in environmental simulation. The Hunt Valley lab offers industry-leading expertise in failure analysis and materials testing, and is widely known as a global leader in printed circuit board and printed circuit assembly failure analysis and testing, noted William C. McGinnis, President and CEO of NTS.

"The addition of Trace Laboratories brings to NTS an excellent management, engineering, and technical team, and allows us to expand our geographic reach and further our presence in two parts of the country critical to our customers' success: Chicago and Baltimore," McGinnis said. "We are also adding capabilities to our growing array of services that we would previously outsource, accelerating our responsiveness to customer testing needs and increasing the 'one-stop shop' capability for which NTS has become known. This is an excellent acquisition and further establishes us as the largest and most comprehensive environmental simulation testing laboratory network in the U.S."