CoorsTek, Inc. is a privately owned manufacturer of
technical ceramics for
aerospace
Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and ast ...
, automotive, chemical,
electronics
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
, medical, metallurgical,
oil and gas
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ...
,
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...
and many other industries. CoorsTek headquarters and primary factories are located in
Golden, Colorado
Golden is a home rule city that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 20,399 at the 2020 United States Census. Golden lies along Clear Creek at the base of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountai ...
, US. The company is wholly owned by Keystone Holdings LLC, a trust of the Coors family.
John K. Coors, a great-grandson of founder and brewing magnate
Adolph Coors, Sr., and the fifth and youngest son of longtime chairman and president
Joseph Coors
Joseph Coors, Sr. (November 12, 1917 – March 15, 2003), was the grandson of brewer Adolph Coors and president of Coors Brewing Company.
Birth and education
Coors was born in 1917 to Alice May Kistler (1885–1970) and Adolph Coors II. His sibl ...
, retired as president and chairman in January 2020 after 22 years at the helm.
History
Adolph Coors and John Herold
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
n-born Adolph Coors (1847–1929) opened the Colorado Glass Works in 1887 to manufacture beer bottles for his brewery, the
Adolph Coors Brewing Company, west of Denver. In 1888, the glass works, incorporated as Coors, Binder & Co., was idled by a strike and never re-opened.
[R.H. Schneider, ''Coors Rosebud Pottery, First Edition'', Busche-Waugh-Henry Publications, 1984, , p 10-19.], [R. Banham, ''Coors: A Rocky Mountain Legend'', Greenwich Publishing Group Inc., 1998, , p 16, 34-37, 39, 44-46, 58-60, 69-74, 79-80, 96-100, 102-103, 107, 110, 112 & 121-123.] The Glass Works was leased to Austrian-born John J. Herold (1871-1923) in 1910, who incorporated the Herold China and Pottery Company on the site at 600 Ninth St in Golden. Herold used
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...
from nearby mines to make dinnerware and heat-resistant
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...
ovenware under the trademark Herold Fireproof China, with financial support from Coors.
[Coors Porcelain Company]
" Golden History Museum & Park Online Collection, cited 4 Apr 2019. The now-abandoned clay pits form the western boundary of the
Colorado School of Mines
The Colorado School of Mines, informally called Mines, is a public research university in Golden, Colorado, founded in 1874. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, and mathematics, with a focus on en ...
(CSM) campus. CSM professor Herman Fleck helped Herold perfect his glazing technique.
[L. Marshall, "Golden Synergy," ''Mines'' (CSM Alumni magazine), Vol. 104, #3, Fall 2014, p 14-19.] Adolph Coors became the majority stockholder and was elected to the board of directors of Herold China in 1912. John Herold resigned in 1912 due to
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, ...
and other health concerns, and Adolph Coors Company acquired Herold China in 1914. Herold returned later in 1914 to manage the plant, but left permanently in 1915 for the Guernsey Earthenware Co. in
Cambridge, OH.
Adolph Coors II
Adolph Herman Joseph Coors Jr. (January 12, 1884 – June 28, 1970) was an American businessman. He was the son of Louisa (Webber) and brewer Adolph Coors, and the second President of Coors Brewing Company.
Life and career
Coors was a graduate of ...
(1884-1970) was the first vice-president (VP) and general manager (GM).
CSM evaluated Fireproof China for industrial applications in 1914, and found it suitable.
The company began producing chemical porcelain in 1915 as a result of a World War I embargo on German imports. Adolph Coors' third son,
Herman F. Coors (1890-1967), was named manager in 1916. Employment increased from 37 employees in 1915 to 75 in 1917.
Herold China was renamed Coors Porcelain Company in 1920, and the trademark "Coors U.S.A." was first used. The Rocky Mountain Bottle Company, maker of Coors beer bottles in nearby
Wheat Ridge
The City of Wheat Ridge is a home rule municipality located in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Wheat Ridge is located immediately west of Denver and is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The ...
and a joint venture with Owens-Brockway Glass Container Inc., came long after Coors, Binder & Co., and has never been affiliated with Coors Porcelain.
[S. White,]
A quick look at our 8 breweries (yes, 8!) (5.) Golden, Colorado
" MillerCoors LLC, 8 Jul 2015.
Rosebud china and Prohibition after WW1
After World War I, Coors Porcelain made fine china and cookware bearing the trademarks Rosebud, Glencoe Thermo-Porcelain, Coorado, Mello-Tone and others.
During
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholi ...
, the ceramic business was largely what kept the parent company afloat. The original factory site at 600 Ninth Street in Golden was the only Coors Porcelain facility until the 1970s, and remained the company headquarters until a new facility was built northeast of Golden in the early 1990s. The Ninth St. plant consists of several adjoining buildings that occupy four square blocks, and was CoorsTek's largest manufacturing site until it closed in 2021.
Herman Frederick Coors managed the company in the early days. Herman's older brother, Grover Cleveland Coors (1888-1954), began the fledgling company's foray into ceramic technology by inventing a tool for forming
spark plug
A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/ai ...
insulation in 1919. Chemist Harold W. Ryland (1881-1966) was hired in 1923, and worked his way up to GM and VP of Porcelain and mayor of Golden 1939-45 before his 1957 retirement. Germany became competitive once again in 1926, and put downward pressure on Coors' chemical porcelain business.
Adolph I's death in 1929 put Adolph II solely in charge of the idled A. Coors Co. brewery and Porcelain both, until his sons
Adolph III, Bill and Joe joined in the 1940s.
Herman Coors offered to buy Porcelain in the early 1920s after frequent management disagreements with his father and older brother, but was refused.
Herman left in 1922 to develop clays mined by the
Alberhill Coal and Clay Company for use in china that could compete with imports. He started the H.F. Coors China Company, a manufacturer of dishes for restaurants and institutional use, in
Inglewood, CA, in 1925. Grover also had friction with Adolph Jr., left for California in 1924, and eventually became a representative for the brewery there.
The H.F. Coors pottery's trademarks include Coorsite, Alox flatware and Chefsware.
Herman retired from Coors China in 1946, and was succeeded by his son Robert M. Coors (1920-2004). Robert's brother Dallas Morse Coors (1917-1996) was the VP. Robert retired in 1978, and sold the 125-employee company to
Standex International Corporation.
, Standex was preparing to shut down Coors China and sell its property for redevelopment circa 2003. Mug-maker Catalina China Inc. of
Tucson, AZ, acquired the assets of Coors China from Standex, and moved the company to Tucson in 100 truckloads over a two-month span in 2003. The assets included a 200-ft-long gas-fired
tunnel kiln purchased in 1988 that was transported in 19 sections. Coors China is not now nor has it ever been a
subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...
of CoorsTek or Adolph Coors Company, although it was a competitor of Porcelain in its early days.
Aluminum beer cans
In the 1950s, Coors Porcelain's parent company investigated the possibility of replacing steel
beverage can
A drink can (or beverage can) is a metal container designed to hold a fixed portion of liquid such as carbonated soft drinks, alcoholic drinks, fruit juices, teas, herbal teas, energy drinks, etc. Drink cans are made of aluminum (75% ...
s with aluminum ones, as part of a closed-loop
recycling
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The Energy recycling, recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability t ...
system. The effort was the brainchild of
W.K. "Bill" Coors (1916-2018), the second son of Adolph II and the vice-president of Porcelain. A Porcelain warehouse at the corner of Ninth St. and Washington Ave. in Golden was selected to house the
pilot plant
A pilot plant is a pre-commercial production system that employs new production technology and/or produces small volumes of new technology-based products, mainly for the purpose of learning about the new technology. The knowledge obtained is then ...
for the aluminum can line. The first aluminum beer can was produced at the site on January 22, 1959. The closed-loop recycling program was initially started in 1960, but the overwhelming public response and lack of recycling infrastructure delayed its complete implementation. In 1970, Coors resumed their ambitious and aggressive program called "Cash for Cans", which operated throughout Coors' 11-state marketing area offering a
penny
A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...
a can. Coors success with the aluminum industry was a critical breakthrough in the development of America's recycling market and collection infrastructure. B.L. "Bob" Mornin (1924-1992), a
ceramic engineer at Coors Porcelain since 1954, was appointed manager of can production in 1963, and led it to profitability.
[B.M. Conny, ''A Catalyst for Change: The Pioneering of the Aluminum Can'', A. Coors Co., 1990, p 39, 51-53 & 87.] The can operation eventually outgrew the Porcelain building and moved into its present location east of the brewery in 1966.
The can, end and bottle factories were jointly managed by Joe Coors as Coors Container Company from 1971 to 1981.
Coors Brewing Company
The Coors Brewing Company started as an American brewery and beer company in Golden, Colorado. In 2005, Adolph Coors Company, the holding company that owned Coors Brewing, merged with Molson, Inc. to become Molson Coors.
The first Coors b ...
reorganized its 340-employee can, end and tab operations into a joint venture with the
Ball Corporation
Ball Corporation is an American company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. It is best known for its early production of glass jars, lids, and related products used for home canning. Since its founding in Buffalo, New York, in 1880, when it w ...
in 2002, known as
Rocky Mountain Metal Container LLC.
, Coors Ceramics began developing hot-pressed SiC-whisker-reinforced Al
2O
3 ceramic tooling for beverage can machinery in the 1990s.
On January 22, 2009, the original Coors can plant was named an ASM Historical Landmark by the Board of Trustees of
ASM International, for its role in ushering in the age of recyclable aluminum beverage containers. The date marked the 50th anniversary of Coors' first aluminum can. The building is on the southwest corner of the CoorsTek complex at 600 Ninth St in Golden.
Ceramic technology and company growth after WW2
The company gradually diversified its lines of
technical ceramics before and especially after World War II. Bob Mornin was promoted to production superintendent in 1958. The factory was enlarged by 40,000 ft
2 in 1960. Coors greatly expanded its product lines, reduced scrap and accelerated production with the aid of
cold isostatic pressing in the 1940s;
metallizing
Metallizing is the general name for the technique of coating metal on the surface of objects. Metallic coatings may be decorative, protective or functional.
Techniques for metallization started as early as mirror making. In 1835, Justus von Li ...
,
tape casting and
hot isostatic pressing
Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is a manufacturing process, used to reduce the porosity of metals and increase the density of many ceramic materials. This improves the material's mechanical properties and workability.
The process can be used to p ...
in the 1950s; and multilayer ceramic
capacitor
A capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy in an electric field by virtue of accumulating electric charges on two close surfaces insulated from each other. It is a passive electronic component with two terminals.
The effect of ...
s in the 1960s. A four-story high, 32-ft diameter
spray dryer with 5000 lb/hr capacity was installed in 1962.
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory awarded Coors a 2-year contract in 1963 to produce enriched
urania
Urania ( ; grc, , Ouranía; modern Greek shortened name ''Ránia''; meaning "heavenly" or "of heaven") was, in Greek mythology, the muse of astronomy, and in later times, of Christian poetry. Urania is the goddess of astronomy and stars, ...
-
beryllia fuel elements for the Tory II-C nuclear
ramjet
A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an ass ...
engine, which increased employment by 230 to a then-record 1100 total. High-
alumina (85 to 99.9% Al
2O
3) ceramics replaced
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...
(mixed-oxide ceramics, e.g.,
mullite) in many thermomechanical, electrical and chemical applications. Coors engineers Vlad Wolkodoff and Bob Weaver invented fully dense, glass-free 99.5+% Al
2O
3 ceramics in 1964, useful for many applications where porcelain is deficient.
, Growth in the 1970s enabled Coors to build the 150,000 ft
2 electronic ceramics Clear Creek Valley Plant east of Golden in 1970, and its first facility outside of Golden, an electronic substrate plant in
Grand Junction, CO
Grand Junction is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 65,560 at the 2020 United States Census, making Grand Junction the 17th mo ...
, in 1975. Coors made its first purchase of a competitor when it bought Wilbanks Inc. of
Hillsboro, OR, in 1973.
["Coors Acquires Ceramic Firm," ''Ceramic Industry'', Vol 100, #4, Apr 1973, p 20.] Two more competitors—Research Instrument Co. of
Norman, OK, and Alumina Ceramics Inc. of
Benton, AR—were acquired in 1975 and '76, resp. Coors opened its first foreign factory in
Glenrothes, Scotland, in 1981. Two more foreign subsidiaries were acquired in the early 1980s, an electronic ceramics plant in Singapore and a paper-tooling plant in Brazil.
Coors began making
silicon carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal s ...
,
silicon nitride
Silicon nitride is a chemical compound of the elements silicon and nitrogen. is the most thermodynamically stable and commercially important of the silicon nitrides, and the term "silicon nitride" commonly refers to this specific composition. It ...
,
spinel
Spinel () is the magnesium/aluminium member of the larger spinel group of minerals. It has the formula in the cubic crystal system. Its name comes from the Latin word , which means ''spine'' in reference to its pointed crystals.
Properties
S ...
,
zirconia
Zirconium dioxide (), sometimes known as zirconia (not to be confused with zircon), is a white crystalline oxide of zirconium. Its most naturally occurring form, with a monoclinic crystalline structure, is the mineral baddeleyite. A dopant ...
and several other ceramic products by the mid-1980s.
The Joe Coors era
Joseph "Joe" Coors, Sr. (1917–2003), third son of Adolph II, joined Porcelain in 1940 after graduation from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
and stints at
DuPont
DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
and
National Dairy Products Corp.
[D. Baum, ''Citizen Coors'', William Morrow, 2000, , p 25 & 338.] He was promoted to president in 1946, and became a member of the board of directors and an executive of Adolph Coors Company as well in 1952. Joe was named a Fellow of the
American Ceramic Society (ACerS) in 1967, and an Honorary Member of ACerS in 1985.
Coors Porcelain becomes Coors Ceramics
Coors Porcelain was renamed Coors Ceramics Company in 1986, shortly after
Joseph Coors, Jr. (1942-2016),
, succeeded R. Derald Whiting (1923-1995) as president. At the time, porcelain was a small part of the 12-plant, 2200-employee company's output. High-alumina ceramics were and remain the company's primary products. Joe Jr., a mathematician and
quality engineer, had been at Wilbanks 1973-84 and was its president 1980–84, and the vice-president for quality at Coors Porcelain 1984-5 prior to his promotion. Joe Jr. promptly reorganized the company into two divisions, Electronic and Structural.
Chaired professor and ceramic research at CSM
Janet H. Coors (1912-1994), widow of Herman Coors, endowed the Colorado Center for Advanced Ceramics (CCAC) at the Colorado School of Mines in 1988 with $2 million, and established the H.F. Coors Distinguished Professor of Ceramic Engineering chair. Coors executive David G. Wirth, Jr. (1937-2017), was appointed as the first director of CCAC. Dennis W. Readey left the
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...
to become the first Coors Professor and succeeded Wirth as director of CCAC. Readey, a Fellow of ACerS, served as president of ACerS in 1991–2, and was named a Distinguished Life Member of ACerS in 2002. Upon his retirement, Readey was succeeded as Coors Professor by Nigel Sammes, and as director of CCAC by Ivar Reimanis. Reimanis was promoted to the Coors Chair in 2012 upon Sammes' retirement. Geoff Brennecka was awarded the Coors Chair in 2022.
John Coors earned his
B.Sc. in
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials in ...
at CSM in 1977, the first of eleven Coors family members to graduate from Mines as of 2014.
W. Grover Coors, a brother of John, earned his
Ph.D. at CSM in 2001 and has been a research professor in CCAC as well as an employee of CoorsTek. VP Doug Coors holds a B.Sc. in Engineering Physics, Co-CEO Michael Coors holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, and Co-CEO Timothy Coors (son of Jeff) a B.Sc. in Chemical and Petroleum Refining Engineering, from Mines.
CoorsTek endowed CSM with $26.9 million, the largest in Mines' history, for the construction of the CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering, in September 2014. Ground was broken for the new 95,000 sq. ft. (8800 m
2) building on 2 May 2016 on the former site of Meyer Hall, the home of the physics department. CoorsTek employed about 50 CSM alumni at the time of the announcement.
,
The Coors empire separates
Adolph Coors Company became a
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
in 1989, with
Coors Brewing Company
The Coors Brewing Company started as an American brewery and beer company in Golden, Colorado. In 2005, Adolph Coors Company, the holding company that owned Coors Brewing, merged with Molson, Inc. to become Molson Coors.
The first Coors b ...
as its largest subsidiary. The non-brewing subsidiaries were spun off late in 1992 under a new holding company, ACX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: ACX), with Bill Coors as chairman of both holding companies.
The key subsidiaries of ACX were Coors Ceramics Co.;
Graphic Packaging International Inc., with Joe Jr.'s younger brother J.H. "Jeff" Coors as chairman and president; Golden Technologies Company (GTC), a collection of
R&D projects headed by former Wilbanks executive Dean Rulis; and Golden Aluminum Company, with Joe Jr. as its interim president.
["1993 Annual Report," ACX Technologies, Inc., p 24 & 33.] Most of the ceramics-related GTC projects were folded into Coors Ceramics, while others were sold to investors or shut down with the demise of GTC in the late 1990s. Golden Aluminum was sold to
Alcoa
Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for Aluminum Company of America) is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primar ...
in 1999, and is now an independent remelter and rolling mill in
Fort Lupton, CO. Graphic Pkg., previously Coors Packaging Co. 1974–88, merged with Riverwood International Corp. in 2003 and moved its headquarters to suburban
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...
, but kept a 250-employee plant in Golden until 2010 that supplied paperboard packaging for Coors beer. ACX and Adolph Coors Co. had many common stockholders including the Coors family, but were otherwise entirely independent of one another. Coors Ceramics Co. was no longer affiliated with the Coors brewery. Coors Ceramics' headquarters moved from Ninth St. in Golden to a new building in the Coors Technology Center in an unincorporated area northeast of Golden.
,
Acquisitions and diversification
In an effort to broaden its business beyond mostly structural and insulating ceramics, Coors Ceramics made several acquisitions in the late 1990s, especially of suppliers to the semiconductor industry. Coors acquired plastics manufacturer Tetrafluor Inc. of
El Segundo, CA, in August 1997 for $15.8 million. Coors bought precision machine shops Edwards Enterprises of
Newark, CA, and Precision Technologies of
Livermore, CA, in March 1998 for $18M and $22M, respectively. Coors acquired ceramic maker Doo Young Semitek Co., Ltd., of Kyungbook, South Korea, for $3.6M in December 1999. Coors purchased machine shop Liberty Machine Inc. of
Fremont, CA, for $4M in March 2000. In 1993, Coors sold circuit board manufacturer Microlithics Corp. to VisiCom Laboratories, and its ceramic subsidiaries in
Ocean Springs, MS and
Rio Claro, São Paulo
Rio Claro is a city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The elevation is 613 m. It was incorporated as the village of '' São João Batista do Ribeirão Claro'' in 1827, and this incorporation is celebrated every year on June 24 as a municipal h ...
, Brazil to undisclosed buyers.
CoorsTek bought
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenue ...
' 105-employee, 106,000-ft
2 Advanced Ceramics in
Vista, CA, in 2011 for $7M, and added product lines in body armor, helicopter seat plating and ceramic heaters. In September 2013 CoorsTek purchased Innovative Medical Device Solutions (IMDS) of
Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accordi ...
, for an undisclosed amount, merged it with C5 Medical Werks of Colorado, and created a new subsidiary, CoorsTek Medical LLC.
[A. Gonzales,]
Coors brews up medical device manufacturer in Chandler
" ''Phoenix Business Journal'', 9 Oct 2014.
Coors Ceramics becomes CoorsTek
In 2000, ACX was dissolved and Coors Ceramics became an independent, publicly traded company under the name CoorsTek, Inc.
, Annual revenue was $334M and an operating loss of $32M was reported for 1999.
[D. Alexander,]
Inside The Coors Family's Secretive Ceramics Business Worth Billions
" ''Forbes'', 23 Nov 2015. CoorsTek was traded on the
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
under the symbol CRTK. Joe Jr. retired as chairman of CoorsTek in 2000, and was succeeded by his younger brother John (b. 1956). John had been president since Oct 1998. Revenue jumped to $540M in 2000, with record operating income of $58.0M. Worldwide employment declined in 2001 from 4200 at the beginning of the year to 2400 in mid-2002, due largely to a semiconductor industry slump. Keystone Holdings LLC, a
trust of the Coors family that owned 27% of CoorsTek stock, bought the remaining 73% it did not already own, and took the company private once again in 2003.
John Coors had been the president of Golden Genesis Corp. (GGC), a manufacturer of photovoltaic devices for solar power collection in
Scottsdale, AZ. ACX owned 55% of GGC stock (
Nasdaq
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
: GGGO), which it sold to
Kyocera
is a Japanese multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power generating systems, telecommunic ...
Solar Inc. in 1999 for $30M.
Saint-Gobain acquisition
CoorsTek signed an agreement in June 2010 to buy certain assets of the Advanced Ceramics division of the French conglomerate
Saint-Gobain
Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris and headquartered on the outskirts of Paris, at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a mirror manufacturer, it now also produces a variety of ...
.
, The Advanced Ceramics division employed 1200 workers worldwide, and 500 at six North American sites, at the time. CoorsTek gained ownership of several longtime competing brands, such as Cerbec Si
3N
4 bearings, Solcera and Cerastat. The transaction was completed in January 2011, with CoorsTek assuming ownership of six plants in Europe; four in the USA; one each in Canada, Mexico and Brazil; and sales offices in Japan, China, Taiwan and Singapore. The acquisition gave CoorsTek a total of 44 facilities on four continents, and increased capabilities in SiC, Si
3N
4,
mullite and
steatite
Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the ...
. Compagnie de Saint-Gobain retained ownership of its 22 High-Performance Refractories, Lo-Mass, Carborundum Abrasive Products and Hexoloy SiC products business sites.
Covalent Materials Corp. acquisition
CoorsTek acquired Covalent Materials Corp., formerly
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...
Ceramics Co., and its three factories in Japan in December 2014 for ~$450M, the largest acquisition in CoorsTek's history.
The transaction gave CoorsTek over 50 production facilities in 14 countries on four continents, with over 6,000 employees. Covalent began as Toyo Fire Brick Company in 1918 in Tokyo, and later became Toshiba Refractories Co. Toshiba Refractories merged with Toshiba Denko to become Toshiba Ceramics Co., Ltd., in 1968, with factories in Oguni,
Yamagata; Hatano,
Kanagawa
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kanagaw ...
; and
Kariya, Aichi
is a city in central Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 153,162 in 66,751 households, and a population density of 3,040 persons per km2. The total area of the city is .
Geography
Kariya is situated in central Aic ...
. Covalent's product line includes
crucibles
A crucible is a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. While crucibles were historically usually made from clay, they can be made from any material that withstands t ...
,
heating elements, refractory bricks, and components for the semiconductor and
flat panel display
A flat-panel display (FPD) is an electronic display used to display visual content such as text or images. It is present in consumer, medical, transportation, and industrial equipment.
Flat-panel displays are thin, lightweight, provide better l ...
industries, made of silicon carbide, boron carbide, alumina, graphite, yttria and silicon. Its trademarks include Cerasic, Sapphal, Exyria, Glassun, Neobone and Ceraphite.
[CoorsTek to Acquire Covalent Materials Corp.]
" ''Ceramic Industry'', December 10, 2014. The crucibles business was sold to Momentive Technologies in 2022.
CoorsTek revenues increased to $1.25 billion since the Coors family-owned Keystone Trust bought all the stock in 2003. CoorsTek claims it has turned a net profit every single quarter since then. ''Forbes'' magazine estimated that CoorsTek's cash flow reached $340 million in 2015. CoorsTek was worth an estimated $2.5 billion in 2015, about $200M more than the family's 16% stake in the brewery.
Production was discontinued at CoorsTek's original site at 600 Ninth St. in Golden in 2021. The company plans to redevelop the property into its world headquarters and other commercial uses.
CoorsTek sold the crucibles business from the Covalent acquisition to Momentive Technologies Inc. of
Strongsville, Ohio, in 2022.
Products and services
* 99.8% alumina tubing,
crucible
A crucible is a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. While crucibles were historically usually made from clay, they can be made from any material that withstands te ...
s and
thermocouple
A thermocouple, also known as a "thermoelectrical thermometer", is an electrical device consisting of two dissimilar electrical conductors forming an electrical junction. A thermocouple produces a temperature-dependent voltage as a result of th ...
sheaths
* Analytical laboratories specializing in ceramic products
* Cera-Check beams for coordinate measuring machines
* CeraShield
ceramic armor
Ceramic armor is armor used by armored vehicles and in personal armor to resist projectile penetration through high hardness and compressive strength. In its most basic form, it consists of two primary components: A ceramic layer on the outer s ...
* CeraSurf-p alumina-zirconia
hip replacement
Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant, that is, a hip prosthesis. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi (half) replacement. Such joint replacement o ...
* Ceramic powder preparation, including
ball mill
A ball mill is a type of grinder used to grind or blend materials for use in mineral dressing processes, paints, pyrotechnics, ceramics, and selective laser sintering. It works on the principle of impact and attrition: size reduction is done ...
ing and
spray drying
Spray drying is a method of changing a dry powder from a liquid or slurry by rapidly drying with a hot gas. This is the preferred method of drying of many thermally-sensitive materials such as foods and pharmaceuticals, or materials which may requ ...
* Cera-Slide paper-making tooling
* Coors USA laboratory wares
*
Cyclone liners and wear-resistant tiles for effluent separation and mineral dressing
* Electronic 96% alumina substrates and ceramic
dual in-line packages
* Exhaust port liners and other engine components
* Grinding media
*
Kiln furniture
Kiln furniture are devices and implements inside furnaces used during the heating of manufactured individual pieces, such as pottery or other ceramic or metal components.
Materials
Commonly used materials are cordierite (up to 1275 °C), mull ...
,
heat exchanger
A heat exchanger is a system used to transfer heat between a source and a working fluid. Heat exchangers are used in both cooling and heating processes. The fluids may be separated by a solid wall to prevent mixing or they may be in direct conta ...
s,
refractories
In materials science, a refractory material or refractory is a material that is resistant to Thermal decomposition, decomposition by heat, pressure, or chemical attack, and retains strength and form at high temperatures. Refractories are polycr ...
* Metallized waveguides and stand-off insulators for electric power transmission and telecommunications
* Micro-filtration devices for medical applications
*
Proppants for fracking
* Pump plungers and seal rings
* Valve plates for washerless faucets
* Wire-drawing
capstans and
dies
* Zirconia
oxygen sensors
Subsidiaries
Subsidiaries and Outlying Operations
Former subsidiaries
Alumina Ceramics, Inc.
Robert L. Johnson founded Alumina Ceramics, Inc. (ACI) in Benton, AR, in 1971 on Dale Ave. Johnson had been a ceramic engineer and project director at the Alumina Research Division of
Reynolds Metals Co. in nearby
Bauxite, AR. One of ACI's first products was Saphrox 99.7% Al
2O
3 grinding media.
Johnson left ACI in 1974 to work for
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...
in Phoenix, AZ, and was succeeded by Ken Holiman. Coors bought ACI in 1976, mostly for the seal ring specialty ACI had developed, and eventually moved most of its alumina and SiC seal operations to Arkansas. Coors built a second factory on Boone Road. In 2019, CoorsTek invested $26M and added 50,000 ft
2 to the 180,000 ft
2, 200-employee Arkansas operation, in anticipation of growth in its aerospace and defense markets.
Ceramatec, Inc.
Ceramatec was founded in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
in 1976 by
University of Utah
The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
Professors Ronald S. Gordon, Al Sossin and
Anil V. Virkar, to develop liquid-core,
sodium-sulfur batteries for automotive applications. Gordon was the first president. The battery uses a
beta-alumina solid electrolyte Beta-alumina solid electrolyte (BASE) is a fast ion conductor material used as a membrane in several types of molten salt electrochemical cell. Currently there is no known substitute available. β-Alumina exhibits an unusual layered crystal structu ...
(BASE) ceramic membrane to separate the sulfur
anode
An anode is an electrode of a polarized electrical device through which conventional current enters the device. This contrasts with a cathode, an electrode of the device through which conventional current leaves the device. A common mnemonic ...
and sodium
cathode
A cathode is the electrode from which a conventional current leaves a polarized electrical device. This definition can be recalled by using the mnemonic ''CCD'' for ''Cathode Current Departs''. A conventional current describes the direction in wh ...
. Donald L. Heath, a former Coors Porcelain employee, became president in 1985 and moved the company to a larger building. David W. Richerson, author of ''Modern Ceramic Engineering'' (2nd Ed.,
Marcel Dekker
Marcel Dekker was a journal and encyclopedia publishing company with editorial boards found in New York City. Dekker encyclopedias are now published by CRC Press, part of the Taylor and Francis publishing group.
History
Initially a textbook pu ...
Inc., 1992), was hired in 1985 and became the VP for applied technology until he left in 1992. Ceramatec was bought by
Elkem
Elkem is a company that produces silicones, silicon, alloys for the foundry industry, carbon and microsilica, and other materials. Elkem was founded in 1904, has more than 7,000 employees and fields 30 production sites worldwide. Elkem has an ope ...
Metals Co., from a 10% stake in 1982 to full ownership in 1989. Petter Oygarden of Elkem became the president in 1989 and guided the company to profitability by 1992, when Ceramatec had 120 employees and $12M in revenue. Ashok V. Joshi, an expert in
solid oxide fuel cell
A solid oxide fuel cell (or SOFC) is an electrochemical conversion device that produces electricity directly from oxidizing a fuel. Fuel cells are characterized by their electrolyte material; the SOFC has a solid oxide or ceramic electrolyte.
A ...
s (SOFC) and the VP, bought the company from Elkem in 1999 and became president in 2000. Joshi won the
Utah Governor's Medal for Science and Technology in 2003, and the
IRI Achievement Award
The IRI Achievement Award, established by the Industrial Research Institute (IRI) in 1973, is awarded "to honor outstanding accomplishment in individual creativity and innovation that contributes broadly to the development of industry and to the be ...
in 2010. CoorsTek acquired the 165-employee operation in 2008 to be one of its R&D centers, with Joshi continuing as interim president and D.M. "Doug" Coors (son of Joe Jr.) as manager of R&D and later president. CoorsTek launched a joint venture with Innovate! Technology in Ladera Ranch, CA, in 2009, EmiSense Technologies LLC, to commercialize emissions sensors developed by Ceramatec. A new subsidiary, CoorsTek Membrane Sciences AS, was launched in Oslo, Norway, in 2015 to commercialize BASE, SOFC and other ion-separating technologies developed by Ceramatec, under the direction of Per Christian Vestre.
,
Coors Biomedical Company
Coors Biomedical Co., a 35-employee Porcelain subsidiary founded in 1980 in nearby
Lakewood, CO, under the direction of Jim Stephan, developed a low-shrinkage, high-alumina porcelain for
dental restorations
Dental restoration, dental fillings, or simply fillings are treatments used to restore the function, integrity, and morphology of missing tooth structure resulting from caries or external trauma as well as to the replacement of such structure sup ...
in the early 1980s, that could be fitted and fabricated in the dentist's office. The product, sold under the name Cerestore, raised some concerns among dentists for its wear on opposing teeth and its accuracy of fit.
, Coors Biomedical was also developing synthetic bone-grafting technologies. The technology became the property of
Johnson & Johnson after Coors Biomedical closed in the late 1980s.
Coors Ceramics U.K., Ltd.
Coors Porcelain opened its first foreign subsidiary, Coors Ceramics U.K. Ltd. (CCUK), in the Southfield Industrial Estate in Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland, in 1981. A key function of the site was to act as the sales and marketing facility for the European market. CCUK grew when Porcelain acquired
Royal Worcester
Royal Worcester is a porcelain brand based in Worcester, England. It was established in 1751 and is believed to be the oldest or second oldest remaining English porcelain brand still in existence today, although this is disputed by Royal Crown De ...
Industrial Ceramics Ltd. in Wales in 1984. Former CoorsTek President Derek C. Johnson began his Coors career as an electrical engineer at CCUK in 1984. CCUK was reorganized in 1988 as Coors Ceramics Electronics Ltd. (CCEL), with product lines mostly similar to those of the Coors plant in Grand Junction, namely roll-compacted, laser-drilled,
thick-film 96% alumina substrates for
hybrid circuit
A hybrid integrated circuit (HIC), hybrid microcircuit, hybrid circuit or simply hybrid is a miniaturized electronic circuit constructed of individual devices, such as semiconductor devices (e.g. transistors, diodes or monolithic ICs) and ...
s. CCEL added 99.6% alumina thin-film substrates in 1991. CCEL, with 51 employees managed by Ken Henderson, received the prestigious Queen's Award for Export Achievement in 1992, for its record exports of lasered ceramic substrates. CCEL acquired neighboring property in late 1992 and tripled its manufacturing operations to .
VZS/Seagoe Advanced Ceramics Ltd. made ceramics products in Glenrothes, including stand-off insulators, switch gears, circuit breakers, ball valves, pump shafts and bearings, trays and boiler ferrules. Its products were used in semiconductor, defense, chemical, laser, electrical, textile, and paper applications. Seagoe began as George Wade & Sons Ltd. in
Portadown
Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...
, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. In December 1994, W. Laurie Hoskisson led the management buyout of VZS Technical Ceramics Ltd. from the
Cookson Group
Vesuvius plc is a British engineered ceramics company headquartered in London whose products are used by steelmakers and foundries as well as in the glass and solar energy industries. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a c ...
and was appointed Managing Director. Hoskisson helped negotiate the merger of VZS Technical Ceramics of Glenrothes with Seagoe Advanced Ceramics of
Craigavon Craigavon may refer to:
* Craigavon, County Armagh, a planned town in Northern Ireland
** Craigavon Borough Council, 1972–2015 local government area centred on the planned town
* Viscount Craigavon, title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
** ...
, Northern Ireland, in January 1998. The Irish factory closed in 2002. CCEL acquired its 4000-m
2 neighbor and competitor, managed by Hoskisson, from Beauford plc in 2006. Hoskisson worked for CCUK beginning in 1981 as Production Manager, before he was hired by VZS. In 2017, the 70-employee operation, managed by Mark Cameron, signed a contract to manufacture ceramic components for
Teledyne
Teledyne Technologies Incorporated is an American industrial conglomerate. It was founded in 1960, as Teledyne, Inc., by Henry Singleton and George Kozmetsky.
From August 1996 to November 1999, Teledyne existed as part of the conglomerate All ...
e2v's radiotherapy machines. The Glenrothes operations closed permanently on 29 May 2021, due in part to
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...
and the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
Coors Technical Ceramics Company
Coors built a $1–2M, 2800–3700 m
2 factory in Oak Ridge, TN, in early 1990, known as Coors Technical Ceramics Company (CTCC). The 40-employee Oak Ridge plant was considered an extension of Coors' Oklahoma subsidiary, R.I. Ceramic Co., with William A. "Woodie" Howe (1942-2006) managing both operations and reporting to John Jenkins, VP and GM of Coors Ceramics Structural Division. Some unspecified
Y-12 product lines from Cercom in Vista, CA, were moved to Oak Ridge, along with key employees from Norman. The Tennessee location was chosen to take advantage of the technology transfer programs at
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research an ...
's High Temperature Materials Lab.
Howe, a Coors employee from 1962 to 1999, was promoted to VP of the Structural Products Group in 1996, which included CTCC operations in Tennessee, Oklahoma, California and Texas, and ACI in Arkansas. Later in 1996, CTCC acquired HB Company Inc., a manufacturer of petrochemical pump components, giving CTCC additional facilities in Oklahoma City, Odessa, TX, and Red Deer, AB, Canada.
CoorsTek Medical LLC
A growing demand for ceramic implantable medical devices led J.B. "Brad" Coors (son of Joe Jr.) to open C5 Medical Werks Inc. in western Colorado in 2005 next to CoorsTek's Grand Junction factory that opened in 1975. CoorsTek acquired Fort Worth-based Innovative Medical Device Solutions in 2013, and merged the two to create 400-employee CoorsTek Medical LLC, under the direction of Jonathan Coors, son of John. CoorsTek Medical had operations in
Chandler, AZ
Chandler is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and a suburb in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). It is bordered to the north and west by Tempe, to the north by Mesa, to the west by Phoenix, to the ...
,
Vandalia, OH,
Molalla, OR
Molalla is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, Clackamas County, Oregon. The population was 8,108 at the time of the 2010 census.
History
Molalla was named after the Molalla River, which in turn was named for the Molala, a Native Americans in t ...
,
Logan, UT
Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The 2020 census recorded the population was 52,778. Logan is the county seat of Cache County and the principal city of the Logan metropolitan area, which includes Cache County and Franklin ...
and
Providence, UT, in addition to Texas and Colorado. Products included artificial joints, components for medical machines and implantable screws, rods and plates. The 88,000-ft
2 former IMDS Vandalia site in suburban
Dayton
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...
was the largest CoorsTek Medical location with 200 employees. The 12-employee, 9000-ft
2 Chandler site in suburban
Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
, begun by IMDS in 2006, was primarily a prototype design and construction operation.
The former C5MW site produced components for hip and knee joints, disc replacements in spine surgery, seeds for
brachytherapy
Brachytherapy is a form of radiation therapy where a sealed radiation source is placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment. ''Brachy'' is Greek for short. Brachytherapy is commonly used as an effective treatment for cervical, prost ...
,
cochlear implant
A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech unde ...
s,
neuro-stimulators, neuro-sensors and
crowns
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
, bridges, abutments and implants for dental applications. The Colorado plant added ceramic
injection molding capabilities in 2008. CoorsTek Medical was sold to UnitedCoatings Group of Italy in July 2019, and renamed Lincotek Medical S.p.A.
R.I. Ceramic Company
Francis "Frank" Maginnis (1925-2018) left the
University of Oklahoma
, mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State"
, type = Public research university
, established =
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.7billion (2021)
, pr ...
Physics Dept. machine shop to start Research Instrument Company in
Norman, OK, in 1958 to produce components for oil-field pumps.
, In 1966, Maginnis developed a way of making alumina pump plungers for the oil and gas industries, replacing steel and other metals that corroded too easily. Sales grew over the next eight years at a rate of 70-80% per year. The company was acquired by Coors Porcelain in 1975, primarily for the product line of ceramic plungers used in
reciprocating pumps in secondary oil recovery processes, and ceramic ball valves. Coors renamed the company R.I. Ceramic Company in 1978. The acquisition gave Coors product lines that would have cost ~ten times as much to develop, and an inventory of products to address buyers' immediate needs. Before the acquisition, the delivery time in Golden for ceramic pump components was months, whereas with R.I. it was closer to a week. Woodie Howe was promoted from the
metallizing
Metallizing is the general name for the technique of coating metal on the surface of objects. Metallic coatings may be decorative, protective or functional.
Techniques for metallization started as early as mirror making. In 1835, Justus von Li ...
department supervisor in Golden to president of R.I. in 1980. R.I. had about 40 employees in the mid-1980s. Former CoorsTek
chief operating officer
A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...
J. Mark Chenoweth began his Coors career as a machinist at R.I. in 1986. The 1996 acquisition of HB Company's newer operation in Oklahoma City led to closure of the plant in Norman and its relocation to the state capital.
Wilbanks International, Inc.
William H. Wilbanks (1927-2006), Tom Stuart and Frank C. Erzen founded Wilbanks Inc. in 1963 in Hillsboro, OR, to manufacture ceramic components for the pulp and paper industries. The components included suction box covers, foil sections, Versafoil forming tables and cleaning cones. The plant was originally located at 26900 S. W. Tualatin Valley Hwy. in Hillsboro, before moving to its present site in the Hawthorn Farm Industrial Park on 53rd Ave. Coors Porcelain acquired 40-employee Wilbanks in 1973, and modified its new subsidiary's name to Wilbanks International, Inc. Bill Wilbanks remained as president until 1980, while Coors employees G.G. Grimes and Shepard Sweeney were named VP & GM and secretary-treasurer, respectively. Coors president R.D. Whiting became the chairman of the executive committee.
Joe Coors Jr. was a quality engineer at Wilbanks 1973-84 and served as president 1980–84. Dean Rulis was the president of Wilbanks 1984–92. Bill Wilbanks, a ceramic engineer at
Tektronix
Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment.
Originally an independent ...
in Portland before he started his namesake firm, managed the 170-employee Coban plant in Brazil in the mid-1980s until his retirement from Coors. Erzen, also a former Tektronix engineer, served as engineering manager of Coban beginning in 1981. CoorsTek sold its paper machine drainage elements operations in Hillsboro to the Coldwater Group in 2017. Coldwater moved the equipment to its Atlanta facility, but still gets its ceramic components from CoorsTek.
[Coldwater Acquires CoorsTek Ceramic Drainage Elements Business]
" Coldwater Seals press release, Atlanta, GA, 1 Oct 2017.
Presidents
* Adolph Coors I (1915–1929)
* Adolph Coors II (1929–1946)
* Joseph Coors, Sr. (1946–1972)
* Robert Derald Whiting (1972–1985)
* Joseph Coors, Jr. (1985–1992, 1997–2000)
* James Wade (1992–1997)
* John K. Coors (2000–2004)
* Derek C. Johnson (2004–2005)
* John K. Coors (2005–2020)
External links
CoorsTek, Inc.''Introduction to CoorsTek, Inc.'' on YouTubeGraphic Packaging International Inc.Golden Aluminum CompanyCoors Brewing CompanyH.F. Coors China CompanyDEW Engineering and Development ULC
References
{{reflist, 30em
Ceramics manufacturers of the United States
Companies based in Golden, Colorado
Manufacturing companies established in 1910
Privately held companies based in Colorado
1910 establishments in Colorado