All Western Plans Acquisition: All Western Enterprises...

All Western Plans Acquisition: All Western Enterprises said Tuesday that it plans to acquire a small company that has patented a system that it hopes will revolutionize the way aluminum alloys are made.

All Western, based in Santa Ana, has signed a letter of intent to acquire Alimet Inc. of Bell Gardens, which sells bulk alloys. Terms will not be disclosed until the deal becomes final, possibly as soon as June 30, All Western President Terrill Linthicum said.

Though Alimet is small, with sales of about $3 million last year, it has patented a system to create more homogeneous aluminum alloys than was possible in the past. By mixing metals with the use of a catalyst, rather than by melting them together, Alimet is able to keep the lighter and heavier metals from separating, Linthicum said.

The new process could result in sales as much as $50 million next year, he said.

All Western is a 6-year-old holding company with a number of financial subsidiaries. They include a company that makes loans to insurance firms and another that finances cars. All Western had 1992 revenue of about $6 million.