ESCO Technologies Inc was incorporated in Missouri in August 1990. It is a producer of engineered products and systems sold to customers mainly for utility, industrial, aerospace and commercial applications. The Company operates in three operating segments Utility Solutions Group, RF Shielding and Test and Filtration/Fluid Flow. Utility Solutions along with its subsidiaries provides, through its STAR network, wireless radio frequency data communications systems to gas, water and electric utilities for advanced metering infrastructure applications. It is a manufacturer of two-way power line communication systems for the electric utility industry, which are composed of equipment, software and support services. It also provides utilities with software systems for energy and water information, delivering a scalable meter data management system, AMI/meter device records and asset management, proven business applications addressing areas such as revenue assurance and distribution asset analysis, and the industrys leading customer presentment and analysis applications. The Test segment along with its subsidiaries designs and manufactures products to measure and contain magnetic, electromagnetic and acoustic energy. It supplies customers with isolated environments including RF test enclosures, acoustic test enclosures, RF and magnetically shielded rooms, secure communication facilities and broadcast and recording studios. The Company also supplies customers with components including RF absorptive materials, RF filters, active compensation systems, antennas, antenna masts, turntables and electric and magnetic probes, RF test cells, proprietary measurement software and other test accessories required to perform tests. The Filtration segment along with its subsidiaries is a supplier of filtration products serving the commercial aerospace, military aerospace and industrial markets. The industrial markets include chemical processing, automotive and mobile equipment. Products include filter elements, assemblies, modules, indicators and other related components. It also supplies flow control products, valves and filters to the space, defense and commercial industries for use in aircraft, satellite propulsion systems, satellite launch vehicles, the space shuttle and its successor, Project Constellation. Competitors of Aclara in the utility communications market include Itron, Inc., Silver Spring Networks, Landis + Gyr, Cannon Technologies Inc., Sensus Metering Systems Inc., Trilliant Inc., Elster Electricity, L.L.C., Comverge, Inc., Neptune Technology Group, e-Meter Corporation, Oracle Corporation, APOGEE Interactive Inc., Ecologic Analytics, LLC, SmartSynch, Inc. and Tantalus Systems Corp, TDK RF Solutions Inc., Albatross GmbH, IMEDCO AG, Cuming Corporation, Pall Corporation, Moog, Inc., SoFrance, Allied Signal and Clarcor Inc. The Companys operations and properties are subject to U.S. and foreign environmental laws and regulations governing, among other things, the generation, storage, emission, discharge, transportation, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and the cleanup of contaminated properties.