Physik Instrumente

PI (Physik Instrumente) provides the broadest and deepest portfolio of precision motion technologies in the world. PI USA complies with the US laws for export controlled technologies.

PI is a privately held company that designs and manufactures world-class precision motion and automation systems including air bearings, hexapods, and piezo drives at locations in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company was founded 5 decades ago and today employs more than 1900 people worldwide.

Our customers are leaders in high-tech industries and research institutes in fields including photonics, life-sciences, semiconductors and aerospace and our solutions have enabled them to make countless breakthrough developments and discoveries.

PI (Physik Instrumente) LP, the US operation of the PI Group, operates five facilities in North America, with its head office in Auburn, MA and additional design and manufacturing facilities in New England.

PI USA Air Bearing Group: Building on Decades of Experience with Industrial Automation for 24/7 Operation

PI USA has made significant investments for the design and manufacture of air bearing positioning products. To keep up with the growth, a new facility in Hopkinton, MA was added to the existing company structure to host PI’s engineering and manufacturing group at the end of 2014. Around the same time, PI USA finalized the purchase agreement with Nelson Air Corp of Nashua, NH, a small but highly specialized manufacturer of air bearings and air bearing stages located about an hour north of Auburn.

The PI Nashua group utilizes a number of modern Haas CNC machines and high precision Okamoto grinders and now works closely with the PI Hopkinton team. The PI Hopkinton team is headed by Phil Greene, former VP of engineering for Danaher / Dover Instruments. Phil and his team have designed and built hundreds of air bearing systems for industrial automation in applications ranging from semiconductor metrology to flat panel inspection and data storage.Together with the acquisition of Nelson Air, PI USA is building on three decades of air bearing experience, including design, controls, and manufacturing from the ground up. PI’s purchase of ACS Motion Control in 2017 was another piece to the puzzle of delivering world-class precision motion and automation systems.

Working with You

PI’s in-house engineered systems and components have enabled customers around the world to increase their productivity and technological advantage for 5 decades. A sample of collaborative work with our customers can be see in the videos below. With a large basis of standard precision motion products and proven methodologies, PI is in the position to quickly modify existing designs or provide a fully customized OEM solution to fit the exact requirements of your application from the whole motion range from finger-tip sized nano-positioners to large scale stages with long travel ranges, through a plethora of different drives and guiding systems.