Watlow Electric Manufacturing Co. is a family-owned company that designs and manufactures industrial electric heaters, sensors, and controllers. Founded in 1922, it has nine factories and three technology centers in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

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and

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, and has sales offices in 16 countries. Watlow serves numerous industries, including semiconductor processing, environmental chambers, energy process, diesel emissions, along with

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

and foodservice equipment.

History

In 1922, Louis Desloge Sr. of the

Desloge family The Desloge family, () centered mostly in Missouri and especially at St. Louis, rose to wealth through international commerce, sugar refining, oil drilling, fur trading, mineral mining, saw milling, manufacturing, railroads, real estate, and rive ...

founded Watlow in a rented corner space on the second floor of a machine shop in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, and began manufacturing electric heating elements for the shoe industry. The name Watlow refers to the “low-watt” heaters that replaced

steam heat "Steam Heat" is a show tune from the 1954 Broadway musical ''The Pajama Game'', written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. "Steam Heat" was one of four songs which Adler and Ross wrote ("within two days, I think" - Adler) and submitted to George A ...

. During the 1930s and 1940s, Watlow began selling products outside the

. Louis' sons Louis Jr. and George joined the company. A few years later, George invented the FIREROD cartridge heater. The first swaged cartridge heater, the patented device greatly increased heat transfer efficiency. Together, the Desloges expanded Watlow’s headquarters and St. Louis manufacturing facility to 185,000 square feet. During the mid-1970s, the company introduced the industry's first

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 ...

product. Shortly after this time, Watlow grew exponentially both globally and domestically, adding facilities in

Kronau Kronau is a municipality in Northern Karlsruhe district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Ru ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and Columbia, Missouri; and acquiring the Claud S. Gordon Company of

Richmond, Illinois Richmond is a village in McHenry County, Illinois, United States, 46 miles northwest of Chicago. It is a commuter village within the Chicago metropolitan area. The population was 2,089 at the 2020 census. History Carpenter William A. McConnel ...

, the nation’s leading manufacturer of temperature measurement devices. In 1997, Watlow celebrated its 75th anniversary in the thermal products industry. In 2000, Watlow Batavia Inc., then a subsidiary of Watlow, settled a lawsuit brought by the U.S.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

over the company's English-only policy. The company had fired eight Spanish-speaking workers. The EEOC alleged that the firings amounted to unlawful discrimination based on national origin, and that Watlow Batavia Inc.'s workplace lacked the safety-related conditions that make an English-only policy permissible. Watlow Batavia Inc. paid $192,500, the largest settlement in the four years since the EEOC had started keeping track. Officials denied any company wrongdoing and said they were settling the suit only to avoid litigation. In 2010, the company sold Watlow Batavia to LV2 Equity Partners of

Midland, Michigan Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Michigan. The city's population was 42,547 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Midland Micropolitan Statistical Area, part of the larger Saginaw-Midland-Bay City Com ...

. In 2014, the company said it would turn its St. Louis facility into an "advanced technology center" by adding 30,000 square feet of new construction and renovating 56,000 square feet of the existing facility. In 2015, Watlow launched their new F4T with INTUITION, a touch-screen controller that combines the functions of several devices into one process control. In 2021, a majority stake of Watlow was acquired by private investment firm Tinicum LP. The Desloge family still has a minority share of the company.

References

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History

References

External links