Altra Industrial Motion is a manufacturer of mechanical power transmission products - brakes, clutches, couplings, and the like. While the products sound automotive to the layman, in fact most Altra products are used on industrial machinery, such as fail-safe brakes for elevators and forklifts, gearboxes on conveyors, heavy duty brakes on mining equipment, clutches for beverage capping equipment, etc.

Altra is the parent company of several power transmission industry brands, including: Ameridrives, Boston Gear, Warner Electric, TB Wood's, Stieber Clutch, Twiflex, Matrix International and Wichita Clutch.

The company is headquartered in Braintree, Massachusetts. In 2005, they recorded sales of $748M USD.

The company was founded in 2004 through the acquisition of the Colfax Power Transmission Group (CPTG) and Kilian Manufacturing by private equity firm Genstar Capital. Which, at the time, consisted of several brands, including Ameridrives, Boston Gear, Formsprag, Marland, Nuttall/Delroyd, Stieber, Warner Electric and Wichita Clutch. Following the foundation, Altra has made several strategic acquisitions, including TB Wood's, Hay Hall (Bibby, Matrix, Twiflex, Huco, and Inertia Dynamics), Svendborg Brakes, Bauer Gear Motor, Guardian Couplings, Lamiflex Couplings, and Bear Linear (now Warner Linear).

While Altra is a relatively young company, the brands have been in existence for many, many years. The brands and the year they were founded are as follows:

Svendborg Brakes (1884)
Nuttall Gear Corp. (1897)
Bibby Transmissions (1919)
Kilian Manufacturing (1922)
Delroyd Worm Gear (1922)
Warner Electric (1927)

Stromag (1932)

Ameridrives (1928)
Industrial Clutch Corp. (1930)
Marland Clutch (1931)
Matrix International (1939)
Stieber Clutch (1944)
Twiflex Limited (1946)
Formsprag Clutch (1946)

Centric (1948)
Wichita Clutch (1954)
Huco Engineering (1965)
Inertia Dynamics (1971)
All Power (1986)

Lamiflex (1999)
Bear Linear (2001)

Altra Industrial Motion went public in December, 2006. It trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol AIMC.

Altra's broad product range can be divided into three distinct divisions:

Altra operates production facilities in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Since the company's founding in 2004, many of the factories produce more than one brand.