The story
The company traces its origin to 1915 when a Pittsburgh engineer, Edwin L. Wiegand, received a patent for a resistance heating element embedded in an insulated refractory enclosed in a metal sheath. This electric heating method would eventually be applied to home cooking and heating as well as manufacturing processes. Chromalox incorporated in 1917, with the company's first order for a strip heater used in a product that became the modern household clothes iron. The product had the word "chrome" stamped on the strip heater and used a cement mix to "lock" in the heating element, hence the name "Chromalox."
The company continued to grow and developed a Pittsburgh manufacturing presence in the 1920s, developing new industrial heating products and processes. It expanded into the nuclear industry in the 1950s, supplying pressurizer heaters. Chromalox was also a supplier to the aerospace support industry in the 1960s, with a Chromalox strip heater included on the first Apollo Lunar Module.
Chromalox expanded into global markets by acquiring two manufacturing facilities, Grimwood in England, and Etirex in France. In 1977, Chromalox Industrial Controls was born with the purchase of Rosemount Temperature Controls in LaVergne, TN. The controls product lines were diversified and expanded, positioning Chromalox as a leader in the industry. International manufacturing acquisitions continued in the 1990s, and a Hong Kong regional sales office was added in 1993 to service Asian markets.
From Wikipedia’s article on Chromalox, Inc., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5