The pair have, in fact, been working together since 2012. Upon the acquisition, an official statement read: “Walter AG is expanding its expertise with Comara and will therefore be able to connect tools with greater sophistication and optimise them using real-time data in future. Combined with the existing Walter ToolID, this will give rise to the production of ‘Smart Tools’ in future.

“With ‘appCom’, Comara offers machine manufacturers and industrial companies their own platform for individual apps – special software modules in the production environment. In collaboration with Walter, the aim here is to develop further solutions and make them available to other machine and device manufacturers and to end users. A new business area for Walter with great future potential beyond tool optimisation.”

In the latest release, Walter AG president Mirko Merlo says: “This is a key strategic step towards expanding our digital portfolio and further developing our company towards Industry 4.0.”

Acquiring Comara constitutes the next logical step in Walter’s development from product to process partner, he says, and now to digital process partner, too.

The objective is to be able to enable Walter’s customers to boost their productivity and efficiency across the entire process chain.

Comara will remain an autonomous operation with separate products and its own retail arm.

Walter AG is a member of the Sandvik Group's Machining Solutions business, which also includes Sandvik Coromant, Seco Tools and Dormer Pramet.