Here's one way to succeed during tough economic times: pool your resources with other companies and leverage your combined competencies in meeting your customers needs. Illinois Tool Works Inc. of Glenview, Ill. has enabled just that. The diversified manufacturer of highly engineered components, which encompasses more than 854 business units in 57 countries, has brought together three of the units - Lumex, Inc. of Palatine, Ill.; Cal Sensors, Inc. of Santa Rose, Calif.; and Opto Diode Corp. of Newbury Park, Calif. - to form the ITW Photonics Group. I caught up with Cary Moreth, vice president and general manager of the ITW Photonics Group, and representatives of each of the companies on my last day at Photonics West last week. They described the various ways in which the companies work together - utilizing relationships within the group’s own customer base, for instance, to create new markets. The ITW Photonics Group facilitates an integrated approach to product design and development. Lumex offers high-performance LEDs and LCDs while Cal Sensors manufacturers infrared detectors, emitters and arrays and Opto Diode produces IR LEDs, LED arrays, photodiodes and opto-electronic assemblies. Through the collaboration, the ITW Photonics Group can get in early enough in the design cycle to come up with the most effective technology pairings. “Integration of different suppliers´ technology is often difficult to achieve, and the ITW Photonics Group takes care of that,” Moreth said. Each of the three companies continues to operate independently, of course. Both Cal Sensors and Opto Diode were showing a range of products at Photonics West. Gary Boas