LEWISTON – A New Hampshire company bought RF Technologies, infusing the local microwave technology company with the money it needs to expand and more than doubling its work force.

The deal was closed Friday.

“This is a good thing for us and a great thing for the community,” said George Harris, co-founder of RF Technologies.

Harris and his partner, Peter Robicheau, worked for more than a year on the deal. Although RFT has been very successful securing patents and devising innovative ways to use microwave technology in various industries, it suffered from a lack of business savvy.

“We generate a huge amount of technology in intellectual property portfolio,” said Harris. “But we’re awful business people … like geeks who don’t worry about money.”

RFT designs and manufactures equipment that uses microwave technology for industries as diverse as wood products, food service and telecommunications. Harris will be president of the new company, RF Technologies LLC, and Robicheau will head up design and manufacturing. The new company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ferrite Co. Inc.

Ferrite, the largest microwave technology company in the world, does about 10 times the business of RFT. Harris said Ferrite’s business acumen and its financial backing are what RFT needed to stabilize the company and allow its staff to focus on innovations.

“It’s an inspired deal,” said Harris.

RFT plans to expand into the other half of its existing plant on Foss Road. It’ll need the extra space since Ferrite will move much of its manufacturing work to Lewiston. The additional work also means RFT will be hiring at least 15 new employees, mostly in the skilled labor trades, such as welders, fabricators and machinists.

“These are good-paying, full-time jobs with benefits,” said Harris. He expects to hire the new workers over the next 20 months or so.

Ferrite wanted RFT to consider moving out of Lewiston, but Harris said he and Robicheau were dead set against it.

“The L-A community and LAEGC have been very good to us,” said Harris, referring to the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council. “We wanted to give back to the community.”

When he and Robicheau formed the company in 1991, they got loans from LAEGC, as well as Northeast Bank and Fleet, and “basically mortgaged everything we had.”

The company was doing well until the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 when a client withdrew a multi-million-dollar deal that would have used RFT technology to make laminate veneer lumber. RFT saw its business decline 60 percent.

LAEGC was particularly understanding, extending the loans as needed.

“We had some tough times,” said Harris. “Without their help, we probably wouldn’t have been able to pull this off. They were very instrumental.”