Minco is a

privately owned company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...

with over 650 employees worldwide. Based in

Fridley, Minnesota Fridley is a city in Anoka County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 29,590 at the 2020 census. It was first settled as a place named Manomin where Rice Creek flows into the Mississippi river and the Red River Oxcart trail crosses ...

, the company designs and manufactures flexible printed circuit boards and interconnects, RTD based temperature sensors and assemblies, and thermal services for medical, defense, aerospace, industrial, and food service applications.

Company history

Minco Products, Inc was founded by Karl Schurr on October 2, 1956, as an engineering firm, designing and building precision electromechanical devices on a subcontract basis. In 1958, the company decided to concentrate on the development of proprietary products. One of the first efforts was flexible wire-wound temperature sensors for aerospace guidance systems, which led to the development of flexible heaters, introduced by Minco in 1960. Also during the 1960s & 1970s, the temperature sensor line was expanded to include industrial RTD probes, bearing sensors, and RTD stator sensors to which the company supplied to large rotating apparatus (generators) manufacturers (GE, Westinghouse, Reliance Electric, Brown Boveri) and energy management system contractors. The company’s heater product line also expanded into commercial, aerospace and medical applications. Minco's combination etched foil heater-platinum wire sensors were used on many NASA projects including the 1976 Viking Lander (heated soil samples) and Skylab (Inertial Guidance System). Of note, NASA investigated Minco due to the erratic gyros on Skylab causing spacewalks to replace the IGS. The heater-sensor was found not to be the problem. Minco also manufactured one of the first etched foil heaters for early "wet" copy machines made by 3M. They opened their second manufacturing facility for this production. In 1974, the company adapted its precision etching and laminating expertise to the manufacture of flexible printed circuits. These first circuits served as interconnects in cardiac pacemakers. Temperature instruments (transmitters, meters, controllers, and alarms) were also added in the 1970s. Recent products include optically-clear heaters, HDI and rigid-flex circuits, isolated temperature transmitters, and high temperature RTD elements. Karl Schurr remained as company president until his death in 1999 at which time his son, Dana Schurr, assumed the role of president.

Corporate business units

Minco's Thermofoil Heater Business Unit is the world's largest manufacturer of polyimide (Kapton) insulated etched foil heaters. They are generally used in applications where low weight, low profile and high energy efficiency, as well as precision conductive heat input are more critical than cost. One example of this would be Medical diagnostic equipment. They also sell transparent heaters, silicone rubber insulated heaters, high temperature mica insulated heaters and a unique thick film on aluminum heaters. Minco's Flex Circuits Business Unit designs and manufactures custom

flexible circuit Flexible electronics, also known as ''flex circuits'', is a technology for assembling electronic circuits by mounting electronic components on flexible plastic substrates, such as polyimide, PEEK or transparent conductive polyester film. Addi ...

s for high-end applications for use in critical medical and defense products. The Temperature Sensors & Instruments Business Unit manufactures custom temperature elements and assemblies for the rotating equipment industry (large generators, turbines and motors). It also sells customized temperature and

relative humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, dew, or fog t ...

sensors, temperature

transmitters In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna with the purpose of signal transmissi ...

and signal processing, transmitting, temperature monitoring, control and alarm services.

References

{{reflist Companies based in Minnesota Privately held companies based in Minnesota Electronics companies established in 1956 Anoka County, Minnesota Flexible electronics 1956 establishments in Minnesota