UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

FORM SD

SPECIALIZED DISCLOSURE REPORT

ALLIED MOTION TECHNOLOGIES INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

495 Commerce Dr., Suite 3, Amherst, NY 14228

(Address of principal executive offices)

Michael R. Leach, 716-242-8634

(Name and telephone number, including area code, of the person to contact
in connection with this report.)

Check the appropriate box to indicate the rule pursuant to which this form is being filed, and provide the period to which the information in this form applies:

x Rule 13p-1 under the Securities Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13p-1) for the reporting period from January 1 to December 31, 2017.

Section 1 - Conflict Minerals Disclosure

Item 1.01 Conflict Minerals Disclosure and Report

A copy of the Company’s Conflict Minerals Report is provided as Exhibit 1.01 hereto and is publicly available at: www.Alliedmotion.com.  Any reference in this Report or the attached exhibit(s) to our corporate website(s) and the contents thereof is provided for convenience only; such websites and the contents thereof are not incorporated by reference into this Report nor deemed filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Item 1.02 Exhibit

The Company’s Conflict Minerals Report required by Item 1.01 is filed as Exhibit 1.01 to this Form SD.

Section 2 - Exhibits

Item 2.01 Exhibits

Exhibit 1.01 - Conflict Minerals Report as required by Items 1.01 and 1.02 of this Form.

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the duly authorized undersigned.

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Exhibit 1.01

Allied Motion Corporation

Conflict Minerals Report

for the Year Ended December 31, 2017

This Conflict Minerals Report (“CMR”) for the year ended December 31, 2017 is presented to comply with Rule 13p-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Rule”). The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted the Rule to implement reporting and disclosure requirements related to conflict minerals as directed by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”). The Rule imposes certain reporting obligations on SEC registrants whose manufactured products contain conflict minerals that are necessary to the functionality or production of their products. “Conflict minerals” are defined as cassiterite, columbite-tantalite, gold, wolframite, and their derivatives, which are limited to tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold (“3TG”). These requirements apply to registrants whatever the geographic origin of the conflict minerals and whether or not the conflict minerals fund armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (“DRC”) or an adjoining country (together with the DRC, the “Covered Countries”).

1.                                      Introduction

1.1                               Company Overview

This report has been prepared by management of Allied Motion Technologies Inc. (herein referred to as “Allied Motion”, the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). The information in this report covers the activities of Allied Motion and all of its consolidated subsidiaries.

Allied Motion Technologies Inc. (“Allied Motion” or the “Company”) is a global company that designs, manufactures and sells precision and specialty motion control components and systems used in a broad range of industries.  Our target markets include Vehicle, Medical, Aerospace & Defense (A&D), and Industrial/Electronics. We are headquartered in Amherst, NY, and have operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia. We are known worldwide for our expertise in electro-magnetic, mechanical and electronic motion technology. We sell component and integrated motion control solutions to end customers and original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) through our own direct sales force and authorized manufacturers’ representatives and distributors. Our products include brush and brushless DC motors, brushless servo and torque motors, coreless DC motors, integrated brushless motor-drives, gearmotors, gearing, modular digital servo drives, motion controllers, incremental and absolute optical encoders, and other motion control-related products.

1.2                               Products Overview

Our products and solutions are applied broadly to support a wide range of applications in our primary served markets.  Examples of applications in these markets that use Allied Motion components and systems include the following:

Vehicle:  electronic power steering and drive-by-wire applications to electrically replace, or provide power-assist to, a variety of mechanical linkages, traction / drive systems and pumps, automated and remotely guided power steering systems, various high performance vehicle applications, actuation systems (e.g., lifts, slide-outs, covers, etc.), HVAC systems, improving energy efficiency of vehicles while idling and alternative fuel systems such as LPG, fuel cell and hybrid vehicles.  Vehicle types include off- and on-road construction and agricultural equipment; trucks, buses, boats, utility, recreational (e.g., RVs, ATVs (all-terrain vehicles)), specialty automotive, automated and remotely guided vehicles, etc.

Medical: surgical robots, prosthetics, electric powered surgical hand pieces, programmable pumps to meter and administer infusions associated with chemotherapy, pain control and antibiotics, nuclear imaging systems, radiology equipment, automated pharmacy dispensing equipment, kidney dialysis equipment, respiratory ventilators, heart pumps, and patient handling equipment (e.g., wheel chairs, scooters, stair lifts, patient lifts, transport tables and hospital beds, etc.).

Aerospace & Defense:  inertial guided missiles, mid-range smart munitions systems, weapons systems on armed personnel carriers, unmanned vehicles, security and access control, camera systems, door access control, airport screening and scanning devices, etc.

Electronics/Industrial:  products are used in the handling, inspection, and testing of components and final products such as PCs, gaming equipment and cell phones, high definition printers, tunable lasers and spectrum analyzers for the fiber optic industry, test and processing equipment for the semiconductor manufacturing industry, factory automation, specialty equipment, material handling equipment, commercial grade floor polishers and cleaners, commercial building equipment such as welders, cable pullers and assembly tools, etc.

1.3                               Supply Chain

Our supply chain includes over 1,000 different suppliers. Because of our size, the complexity of our products, and the depth, breadth, and constant evolution of our supply chain, it is difficult to identify actors upstream from our direct suppliers. There are many

tiers of suppliers and sub-suppliers between the Company and a smelter that processes 3TG that is contained in a particular product. Therefore, it is inherently difficult to ascertain the ultimate source of 3TG in the products we manufacture.

As a result, we are relying on our direct suppliers to provide information on the origin of the 3TG contained in components and materials supplied to us — including sources of 3TG that are supplied to them from lower tier suppliers.  Our primary means of determining country of origin of necessary 3TG was by conducting a supply chain survey with direct suppliers using Responsible Minerals Initiative Conflict Minerals Reporting CMRT (“CMRT”), version 5.0 or higher. This supply chain survey, and the conflict minerals program as a whole, has been developed and implemented in cooperation with our third-party service provider, Assent Compliance, Inc. (“Assent”). All of our direct suppliers were surveyed as we could not definitively determine which supplier sourced material contained 3TG that were necessary to the functionality or production of our products.

1.4                               Conflict Minerals Policy

Allied Motion has adopted a policy statement supporting the aims and objectives of the U.S. legislation on the supply of conflict minerals and committing to not knowingly procure conflict minerals that originate from facilities in the “Conflict Region” that are not certified as “conflict free.” Allied Motion’s suppliers are asked to undertake reasonable due diligence with their supply chains to assure that specified metals are being sourced only from:

·            Mines and smelters outside the “Conflict Region,” or

·            Mines and smelters that have been certified by an independent third party as “conflict free” if sourced from within the “Conflict Region.” with respect to conflict minerals.

Our policy is publicly available on our website at http://www.alliedmotion.com/company/conflict_minerals/index.html.

2.                                      Conflict of Minerals Compliance Process

2.1                               Reasonable Country of Origin Inquiry (“RCOI”)

Our RCOI was designed to provide a reasonable basis for us to determine whether we source 3TG from the Covered Countries.

Our primary means of determining country of origin of necessary 3TG was by conducting a supply chain survey with direct suppliers using the CMRT. The CMRT was developed to facilitate disclosure and communication of information regarding smelters that provide material to a company’s supply chain. It includes questions regarding a direct supplier’s conflict minerals policy, engagement with its direct suppliers, and a listing of the smelters the direct supplier and its suppliers use. In addition, the CMRT contains questions about the origin of conflict minerals included in the direct supplier’s products, as well as supplier due diligence. Written instructions and recorded training illustrating the use of the tool are available on EICC’s website. Many companies are using the CMRT in their compliance processes related to conflict minerals. All of our direct suppliers were surveyed as we could not definitively determine which products contained 3TG that were necessary to the functionality or production of our products. This supply chain survey, and the conflict minerals program as a whole, has been developed and implemented in cooperation with Assent.

We began our supplier scoping process by filtering our vendor list to remove:

·                                         Service providers/suppliers

·                                        Indirect materials suppliers

·                                        Inactive suppliers (minimum 5 years since last purchase)

This was done to ensure that all suppliers surveyed provided items to Allied Motion that were used in final products in the year 2017. Once the filtering was completed, we populated the list with contact information and this list, composed of 1,029 suppliers, was then provided to Assent for upload to their Assent Compliance Manager SaaS (Software as a Solution) system. Assent then conducted the supplier survey portion of the RCOI.

During the supplier survey, suppliers were contacted via the Assent Compliance Manager, a SaaS platform that enables its users to complete and track supplier communications as well as allow suppliers to upload completed CMRT forms directly to the platform for risk assessment and management.  Non-responsive suppliers were contacted a minimum of three times by the Assent Compliance Manager and then were also managed by the Assent Compliance Supply Chain team in one-on-one communications. This included two follow ups from the supply chain team. During the course of the supplier survey, 25 more suppliers were identified as out of scope as they were found to be inactive suppliers or incorrectly included as a supplier (they were in fact internal Allied Motion factories for which the materials used are already accounted for by external suppliers).  For the 2017 reporting period, Allied Motion received responses from 682, or 66% percent, of its suppliers.

This year’s program includes automated data validation on all submitted CMRTs. The goal of data validation is to increase the accuracy of submissions and identify any contradictory answers in the CMRT.  All submitted forms are accepted and classified as valid or invalid so that data is still retained.  Suppliers were contacted in regards to invalid forms and were encouraged to resubmit a valid form. As of May 15, 2018, we still had 14 invalid supplier submissions that were not yet corrected.

On the basis of the responses to our RCOI, Allied Motion is unable to determine that 3TGs necessary to the functionality or production of our products did not originate in any of the Covered Countries. Therefore, in accordance with Rule 13p-1, Allied Motion engaged in the due diligence measures on the source and chain of custody of those 3TGs, as described in the next section of this Conflict Minerals Report.

2.2                               Management Systems

2.2.1                     Conflict Minerals Policy

As described above, we have adopted a conflict minerals policy, which is posted on our website at http://www.alliedmotion.com/company/conflict_minerals/index.html.

2.2.2                     Internal Team and Training

The Company has established a management team relating to conflict minerals. Our management team is overseen by the Chief Financial Officer and a team of subject matter experts from relevant functions such as quality, supply chain, operations, finance and legal. The team of subject matter experts is responsible for implementing our conflict minerals compliance strategy and is led by the Senior Environmental Compliance Engineer, who acts as the conflict minerals program manager. Senior management is briefed about the results of our due diligence efforts on a regular basis.

We, in cooperation with Assent, have developed internal training programs to educate those employees within the Company who are a potential contact point for suppliers or other external parties regarding the Company’s conflict minerals compliance efforts. We intend to review our training programs at least annually to make sure they are continuously aligned with current regulations, our initiatives, and the tools we use.

2.2.3                     Control Systems

As we do not typically have a direct relationship with 3TG smelters and refines, we are engaged and actively cooperate with other manufacturers in our industry and other sectors.

Our controls include our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, which outlines expected behaviors for all our employees.

2.2.4                     Supplier Engagement

We rely on our direct suppliers to provide information on the origin of the 3TG contained in components and materials supplied to us — including sources of 3TG that are supplied to them from lower tier suppliers.

In accordance with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) requirement to strengthen engagement with suppliers, we have, in cooperation with Assent, provided education to suppliers on the Conflict Minerals regulations as well as the expectations of the law (see Section 2.4, below). In addition, we have leveraged the existing communications within the Company, specifically through our procurement personnel, to encourage supplier interactions with Assent as well for them to understand the need for completion of the surveys. Feedback from this process has allowed us to enhance the training, focus it and adapt it to each user’s needs. It has also allowed for our supplier communications to be more focused and ensure expectations are clear.

This year we placed strong emphasis on supplier education and training. To accomplish this, we used Assent’s learning management system, Assent University, and provided all in-scope suppliers access to their Conflict Minerals training course. This training is tracked and evaluated based on completion. All suppliers were and will continue to be encouraged to complete all modules within this course.

2.2.5                     Grievance Mechanism

We have longstanding grievance mechanisms whereby employees can report violations of the Company’s policies, including our conflict minerals policy. Grievances can be reported through the Whistleblower hotline online at www.ethicspoint.com or by telephone at 1-855-405-6599.

2.2.6                     Records Maintenance

We have retained all relevant documentation from our RCOI and due diligence. Our existing policy related to relevant documentation of our conflict mineral compliance process requires that documentation will be retained for a period of at least five years.

2.3                               Identify and Assess Risk in Our Supply Chain

Because of our size, the complexity of our products, and the depth, breadth, and constant evolution of our supply chain, it is difficult for us to identify actors upstream from our direct suppliers.

We rely on suppliers whose materials or components contain 3TG to provide us with information about the source of 3TG contained in those materials or components. Our direct suppliers similarly rely upon information provided by their suppliers. Many of the largest suppliers either are SEC registrants and subject to the Rule or are suppliers to other SEC registrants that are subject to the Rule.

Each facility that meets the RMI definition of a smelter or refiner of a 3TG mineral is assessed according to red flag indicators defined in the OECD Guidance. Assent uses three factors to determine the level of risk that each smelter poses to the supply chain by identifying red flags:

·            Geographic proximity to the DRC and covered countries;

·            Responsible Minerals Assurance Process audit status;

·            Credible evidence of unethical or conflict sourcing.

Based on the above noted criteria the following facilities have been identified as being of highest concern to the supply chain:

·            Tony Goetz NV - CID002587

·            Kaloti Precious Metals - CID002563

·           African Gold Refinery Limited (AGR) - CID003185

·            Universal Precious Metals Refining Zambia - CID002854

·            Fidelity Printers and Refiners - CID002515

·            Sudan Gold Refinery - CID002567

As part of our risk management plan under the OECD Guidance, when these facilities were reported on a CMRT by one of the suppliers surveyed, risk mitigation activities were initiated. Through Assent, CMRTs that include any of the above facilities immediately produce a receipt instructing the supplier to take their own risk mitigation actions, including submission of a product specific CMRT to better identify the connection to products that they supply to us, and escalating up to removal of these red flag smelters from their supply chain.

As per the OECD Due Diligence Guidance, risk mitigation will depend on the supplier’s specific context. Suppliers are given clear performance objectives within reasonable timeframes with the ultimate goal of progressive elimination of these risks from the supply chain.

In addition, suppliers are guided to the Assent University learning platform to engage in educational materials on mitigating the risk of smelters or refiners on the supply chain.

Additionally, suppliers are evaluated on program strength (further assisting in identifying risk in the supply chain). Evaluating and tracking the strength of the program can assist in making key risk mitigation decisions as the program progresses. The criteria used to evaluate the strength of the supplier’s program are:

·                                        Have you established a conflict minerals sourcing policy?

·                                        Have you implemented due diligence measures for conflict-free sourcing?

·                                        Do you review due diligence information received from your suppliers against your company’s expectations?

·                                        Does your review process include corrective action management?

When suppliers answer yes, they are deemed to have a strong program. When suppliers do not meet those criteria, they are deemed to have a weak program.

As part of our risk management plan and to ensure suppliers understand our expectations, we have, through Assent’s learning management system, Assent University provided all in-scope suppliers access to their Conflict Minerals training courses on conflict minerals and the CMRT. This includes instructions on completing the form, and one-on-one email and phone discussions with supplier personnel.

Additionally, in designing and implementing our strategy to respond to the supply chain risks that we identified, Allied Motion, through the use of consultants, analyzed various industry approaches and consulted with other companies in our industry.  Tracing materials back to their mine of origin is a complex aspect of responsible sourcing in our supply chain. We have determined that seeking information about 3TG smelters and refiners in our supply chain represents the most reasonable effort we can make to determine the mines or locations of origin of the 3TGs in our supply chain. This was done by adopting methodology outlined by the

RMI’s joint industry programs and outreach initiatives and requiring our suppliers to conform with the same standards to meet the OECD Guidelines, and report to us using the CMRT. Through this industry joint effort, we made reasonable determination of the mines or locations of origin of the 3TGs in our supply chain. We also requested that all of our suppliers support the initiative by following the sourcing initiative and working to align their declared sources with the “Known” and “Conflict Free” lists of sourced metals.

2.4                               Design and Implement a Strategy to Respond to Risks

In response to this risk assessment, the Company has an approved risk management plan through which the conflict minerals program is implemented, managed and monitored. Updates to this risk assessment are provided regularly to senior management.

As part of our risk management plan, to ensure suppliers understand our expectations, as mentioned above we have provided both video, recorded training and documented instructions through Assent University. We answered all questions that suppliers requiring further clarification presented to us. We then provided each supplier a copy of the CMRT to complete for purposes of conflict minerals tracking. Furthermore, we reviewed responses to the reporting CMRT with specific suppliers where we needed clarification. As described in our conflict minerals policy, we intend to engage any of our suppliers whom we have reason to believe are supplying us with 3TG from sources that may support conflict in a Covered Country to establish an alternative source of 3TG that does not support such conflict, as provided in the OECD guidance.

2.5                               Carry out Independent Third Party Audit of Supply Chain Due Diligence at Identified Points in the Supply Chain

Allied Motion does not have a direct relationship with conflict minerals smelters or refiners and as a result, Allied Motion does not perform direct audits of these entities in its supply chain. Allied Motion relies on the efforts of the industry associations that administer independent third-party smelter and refinery audit programs and encourages suppliers with more direct relationships with smelters to participate in comparable due diligence validation activities.

2.6                               Report on Supply Chain Due Diligence

This conflict minerals report is being filed with the SEC as an exhibit to our specialized disclosure report on Form SD and is available on our website at www.alliedmotion.com under “Investor Relations” after such filing is made.

3.                                      Due Diligence

3.1                               Design of Due Diligence

Allied Motion designed its due diligence process to be in conformity, in all material respects, with the due diligence framework in the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, Second Edition and related Supplements on Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten and on Gold (collectively the “OECD Guidance”). Allied Motion’s due diligence process is based on multi-industry initiatives with the smelters and refiners who provide conflict minerals within global supply chains.

3.2                               Due Diligence Results

During our due diligence efforts, members of Assent and/or members of the Allied Motion supply chain team made at least three follow-up inquiries, via email, to each supplier who did not respond to our initial survey. Assent reviewed the responses against criteria developed to determine which required further engagement with our suppliers. These criteria included incomplete responses as well as inconsistencies within the data reported in the CMRT. Assent worked directly with those suppliers to provide more detailed and/or corrected responses.

The information that we received from a majority of our suppliers was at their company-wide level. Thus, the smelters or refiners identified by our suppliers contained in the tables below may contain smelters or refiners that processed conflict minerals that our suppliers supplied to their other customers, but not to us. As a result, we are unable to conclusively determine whether the smelters or refiners included in Appendix A were used to process the conflict minerals necessary to the functionality or production of our products during 2017. Because of this uncertainty, we are also unable to conclusively determine whether each of the countries of origin listed were the country of origin of conflict minerals in our products during 2017, and therefore also unable to conclusively determine the source and chain of custody of those conflict minerals. In addition, the third-party audits conducted by the RMI and information that we receive from our suppliers may yield inaccurate or incomplete information. For example, the information received from our suppliers may be incomplete because they may not have received accurate and complete conflict minerals information from all of the suppliers in their own supply chain. We also do not have access to audit reports or detailed findings of the third-party audits conducted as part of the RMI Responsible Minerals Assurance Process and, as a result, are not responsible for the quality of these audits or the audit findings.

Appendix A includes, as of May 15, 2018, the smelters or refiners identified by our suppliers that may have been used to process conflict minerals necessary to the functionality or production of our products during 2017 For all responses that indicated a smelter, our third-party consultant compared the facilities listed to the list of smelters maintained by the Conflict-Free Sourcing

Initiative (“RMI”). If a supplier indicated that the facility was identified as “Conflict-Free”, Assent confirmed that the name was listed by RMI as a Conflict-Free smelter. No violations were identified. As of May 15, 2018, we have validated 321 legitimate smelters or refiners and we are working to validate the additional smelter/refiner entries from the submitted CMRTs. We have not listed in Appendix A any smelters or refiners that we have not been able to validate. Appendix A also includes an aggregated list of the countries of origin from which the reported facilities collectively source conflict minerals, based on information provided by suppliers and the RMI.

Based on the smelter lists provided by suppliers via the CMRTs and publicly available information, we have identified 257 Conflict-Free smelters.

3.3                               Efforts to Determine Mine or Location of Origin

By requesting our suppliers to complete the CMRT, and, as the program progresses, requiring full completion of all necessary smelter identification information which will enable the validation and disclosure of the smelters as well as the tracing of the 3TGs to their location of origin. we have determined that seeking information about 3TG smelters and refiners in our supply chain represents the most reasonable effort we can make to determine the mines or locations of origin of the 3TG in our supply chain.

4.                          Planned Process Improvements

We have taken or intend to take the following steps to improve our conflict minerals program:

Appendix A