The Raychem Corporation was founded in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...

, in 1957 by

Paul M. Cook Paul M. Cook (April 25, 1924 – December 14, 2020) was an American businessman who was the founder and CEO of Raychem, a chemical manufacturing company that reached $2 billion in annual revenue. In 1988, he was awarded the National Medal of ...

, James B. Meikle, and Richard W. Muchmore. Led by Cook and second-in-command Robert M. Halperin, Raychem became a pioneer of commercial products realized through radiation chemistry.

History

The original name of the company was RayTherm Wire and Cable and later formed 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 s ...

named RayClad Tubes. The company changed names to avoid confusion with

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...

. The company was a spin-off from

SRI International SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic d ...

, and their founding technology was wire and cable that used radiation cross-linked polymer insulation targeted at

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

and

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 astrona ...

applications. This was the first known use of

radiation chemistry Radiation chemistry is a subdivision of nuclear chemistry which is the study of the chemical effects of radiation on matter; this is very different from radiochemistry as no radioactivity needs to be present in the material which is being chemically ...

for commercial products. The company soon invented heat-shrinkable tubing also targeted at electronic applications. By 1980 the company had expanded to over 30 countries, including a major branch in Swindon, UK and made the

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

list. It was recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States at that time. The company had only three

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

s until the company was acquired by Tyco International in 1999. Those CEOs were Paul Cook (Founder), Bob Saldich (a long-time Raychem executive, who also ran a Raychem subsidiary, RayNet) and Dick Kashnow, who was responsible for the sale o
Raychem
to Tyco International. At the time of the sale the company had reached sales exceeding $2 billion and was operating in over 60 countries globally. The company invented many breakthrough technologies, including PolySwitch PPTC circuit protection devices, and the

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...

, popular today and branded under the name

Elo TouchSystems Elo or ELO may refer to: Music * Electric Light Orchestra, a British rock music group ** ''The Electric Light Orchestra'' (album), the group's debut album ** ''ELO 2'', the group's second album * ELO Part II, an offshoot band of Electric Light ...

. The company's alumni now populate many CEO and president positions in a variety of industries. The major market segments where Raychem operated were aerospace and defence, automotive, telecommunications, energy networks, consumer electronics and transportation.

Fortune 500 rankings

Legacy

Many products today still carry the Raychem brand; however, confusingly, two different companies sell them:

Tyco International Tyco International plc was a security systems company incorporated in the Republic of Ireland, with operational headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, United States (Tyco International (US) Inc.). Tyco International was composed of two major bu ...

split into three companies in 2007:

TE Connectivity TE Connectivity is an American Swiss-domiciled technology company that designs and manufactures connectors and sensors for several industries, such as automotive, industrial equipment, data communication systems, aerospace, defense, medical, o ...

(Formerly Tyco Electronics) and

Covidien Covidien was an Irish-headquartered global health care products company and manufacturer of medical devices and supplies. Covidien became an independent publicly traded company after being spun off from Tyco International in 2007. It was purcha ...

. In 2012, Tyco International sold Tyco Thermal Controls to Pentair plc. Renamed Pentair Thermal Management, this group continues to provide customers with the Raychem brand name for industrial, commercial and residential trace heating solutions. TE Connectivity sells the other original Raychem products (shrink tubing, wire and cable, SolderSleeve Devices, etc.) under the Raychem brand name. The Circuit Protection business unit, maker of PolySwitch devices, was sold to Littelfuse Corp. in 2016. Elotouch was sold to a private equity firm several years prior to that. TE Connectivity has multiple R&D Sites which include China & India. It operates in India through Raychem RPG, a 50:50 JV with 22000Cr + RPG Group. This Joint Venture specialises in Connection technologies up to 1200kV & has also introduced Speciality Low loss Transformers.RPG Group

References

{{reflist, 30em Manufacturing companies based in California Companies based in Menlo Park, California University spin-offs

History

Fortune 500 rankings

Legacy

See also

References