What Wolverine Advanced Materials makes

Wolverine Advanced Materials makes specialty elastomer-coated metals, the rubber-coated steel and stainless that dampens noise and seals joints in vehicles. Its core product is the brake noise insulator, better known in the trade as a brake shim: a thin coated-metal part bonded to the back of a brake pad to stop the squeal and vibration that drivers hear when they brake. The company builds finished insulators for original equipment brake makers and sells its RCM (rubber-coated metal) shim material to metal stampers and aftermarket friction suppliers who form their own parts. Beyond brakes, it makes sealing gaskets, abutment clips, automotive noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) damping components, engine and compressor gaskets, and transmission separator plates.

The technical heart of the business is the coating. Wolverine runs continuously upgraded coating lines that apply nitrile-rubber (NBR) layers from 0.001 to 0.008 inches thick over a steel or stainless substrate, in low-friction formulations that promote slip and decoupling or high-friction formulations that promote frictional damping, with acrylic, silicone, and thermoset adhesives and textured, smooth, or colored finishes. That material science, rather than heavy stamping tonnage, is what the company sells. It serves automotive OE, OES, and aftermarket channels plus commercial vehicle, industrial, off-highway and agricultural, and specialty and recreational vehicle markets, and it lists experience on electric-vehicle brake platforms including GM BEV work.

The company backs the parts with in-house development and validation. It runs brake NVH development and testing, sealing development and testing, and material development, and it markets a simulation capability it calls Shimulate that models shim performance before physical prototypes are built. For buyers weighing tooling and validation timelines on new brake programs, that combination of coated-material supply and NVH engineering is the reason the company positions itself as a development partner rather than a build-to-print stamper.

Ownership and history

Wolverine Advanced Materials was established in 1934 and is headquartered at 5850 Mercury Drive in Dearborn, Michigan. Its manufacturing base grew outward from the United States over the following decades: a Blacksburg, Virginia plant opened in 1974, Leesburg, Florida and Ohringen, Germany followed in 1979, and a second Blacksburg facility called Cedar Run opened in 1996. Asia came next, with a Shanghai sales and distribution office in 2006 and a stamping operation in Changshu, China in 2008, alongside sales offices in Chennai, Tokyo, and Sao Paulo. The company now reports roughly 600 employees and 12 locations across six countries.

Ownership has changed hands several times. Wolverine acquired the global OE brake and aftermarket business of Material Sciences Corporation in 2014. In 2015, ITT Corporation bought Wolverine from Wynnchurch Capital, and the business operated as an ITT unit for nearly a decade. In July 2024, the private equity firm Center Rock Capital Partners acquired Wolverine from ITT for $171 million, a deal advised by Houlihan Lokey and Lincoln International with legal counsel from Jones Day. Wolverine now operates as a Center Rock portfolio company (Fund II), and the same year it kicked off a technical center in Changshu to expand its APAC engineering footprint. Day-to-day leadership per the company's own team page: Douglas Campos, Chief Executive Officer, who joined in September 2024 after 20 years at Autocam and NN, Inc.; Andrew Holms, Chief Financial Officer, previously CFO-Americas at TI Automotive; Ryan Vargovich, VP of Global Sales and Marketing, who has led the company's brake sales since 2016; and Eric Denys, VP of Global Product Development, who brings more than 30 years of brake NVH experience.

Certifications and quality

Wolverine holds IATF 16949:2016, the automotive-specific quality management standard, across its manufacturing sites, with certificates covering its Blacksburg and Cedar Run plants in Virginia, its Leesburg plant in Florida, and its Ohringen plant in Germany, all in the current 2024 to 2027 cycle and posted as certificate documents on the company's own site. It also holds ISO 14001:2015 environmental management certification at Blacksburg. IATF 16949 is the baseline expectation for any Tier 1 or Tier 2 automotive supplier, and multi-site currency is the credible version of that claim; Wolverine's certificates are dated and site-specific rather than a single blanket statement. The company's development and validation labs support APQP and PPAP program work for brake NVH and sealing applications.

Known customers

Wolverine's customer list is mostly unpublished, as is normal for a brake-shim and coated-material supplier selling into OEM and aftermarket brake programs. Two facts are on the public record:

The company states it supplies brake noise insulators to most OEM platforms across North America, Europe, and China, spanning OE, OES, and aftermarket channels.

Sourcing evidence

Wolverine's US import record reads the way a coated-metals manufacturer's should. It has more than 1,000 US import shipments on record, with the most recent dated September 25, 2026, and its named foreign suppliers are precision steel and stainless strip mills: C.D. Walzholz in Germany, Arinox in Italy, and Shanghai STAL Precision Stainless in China. Those are the substrate producers whose cold-rolled steel and stainless strip Wolverine coats with rubber to make shim material. Coil and strip in, coated parts out, is the signature of a company that manufactures rather than resells, and it is consistent with a business whose stated core competency is the coating rather than the metal.

Coverage caveats apply. These are US ocean-freight records only, so air, truck, and rail movements do not appear, and cross-border flows to the company's plants in Germany, China, and Brazil are outside the US import dataset. Product categories on manifests are declared codes and can be noisy. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence. What the record does show is an active, steel-strip-driven import profile from named precision mills, current as of late September 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What does Wolverine Advanced Materials make?

Wolverine Advanced Materials makes specialty elastomer-coated metals, primarily automotive brake noise insulators (brake shims) and the rubber-coated-metal shim material that stampers and friction suppliers form into their own parts. It also makes sealing gaskets, abutment clips, NVH damping components, engine and compressor gaskets, and transmission separator plates for automotive, commercial vehicle, industrial, and off-highway markets.

Who owns Wolverine Advanced Materials?

Wolverine Advanced Materials has been owned by the private equity firm Center Rock Capital Partners since July 2024, when Center Rock acquired it from ITT Inc. for $171 million. ITT had owned the business since 2015, when it bought Wolverine from Wynnchurch Capital. The company was founded in 1934.

Where is Wolverine Advanced Materials headquartered?

Wolverine Advanced Materials is headquartered at 5850 Mercury Drive, Suite 250, Dearborn, Michigan. It operates manufacturing plants in Blacksburg, Virginia; Leesburg, Florida; Ohringen, Germany; Changshu, China; and Brazil, plus sales and technical offices in Michigan, Germany, China, Japan, India, and Brazil, for a total of 12 locations in six countries.

Who are Wolverine Advanced Materials' customers?

Most of Wolverine's customers are unnamed, as is normal for a brake-shim supplier. The company cites experience on OEM brake platforms including GM BEV work, and the 2024 Center Rock acquisition summary describes more than 150 blue-chip customers and over 2,500 SKUs. Wolverine supplies OE, OES, and aftermarket brake channels across North America, Europe, and China.

What certifications does Wolverine Advanced Materials hold?

Wolverine holds IATF 16949:2016, the automotive quality management standard, across its Blacksburg and Cedar Run (Virginia), Leesburg (Florida), and Ohringen (Germany) plants in the current 2024 to 2027 cycle. It also holds ISO 14001:2015 environmental management certification at Blacksburg. The certificate documents are posted on the company's own site.

How big is Wolverine Advanced Materials?

Wolverine Advanced Materials reports approximately 600 employees across 12 locations in six countries. Its annual revenue is not published as an audited standalone figure because it is privately held, but industry data services estimate it in the $150 to $200 million range.

Last verified September 28, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.