Bourns,_Inc. Knowpia

Bourns, Inc.
	Head quarter in Riverside, California
Company type	Privately held company
Industry	Electronics
Founded	1947; 77 years ago in Altadena, California
Founders	Marlan Bourns ; Rosemary Bourns
Headquarters	Riverside, California, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Gordon Bourns (Chairman and CEO);
Number of employees	9,000
Website	bourns.com

Bourns, Inc. is an American electronics company that develops, manufactures and supplies electronic components for a variety of industries including automotive, industrial, instrumentation, medical electronics, consumer equipment and portable electronics.^[1]

Established in Altadena, California in 1947 by Marlan and Rosemary Bourns, graduates of the University of Michigan, the company was founded to develop and sell electronic components and sensors to the aerospace industry.^[2]

Bourns has 15 manufacturing facilities around the world and has continued growing through the development of new products and technologies as well as through acquisitions. The company has approximately 9000 employees worldwide.^[3]

Its current Chairman of the Board and CEO is Gordon Bourns,^[4] the son of the co-founders.^[5]

History edit

Marlan and Rosemary Bourns started the company in their 384-square-foot (35.7 m²) garage in Altadena, California in 1947. Their invention of linear motion and vane position potentiometers provided a method of accurately determining an aircraft's pitch, and helped to grow their business into a global corporation.

Headquartered in Riverside, California, Bourns makes and provides a broad range of electronic components and circuit protection devices including automotive sensors, circuit protection solutions, magnetic and inductor products, specialty engineering and manufacturing services, precision potentiometers, panel controls, encoders and resistive products.

Technology innovations edit

In 1952, Bourns patented the trimming potentiometer, trademarked "Trimpot".^[6]^[7] In 1995, Bourns acquired VRN's Trimmer assets and introduced the first 4 mm surface-mount sealed tact switch. In 2008, Bourns acquired the Transient Blocking Unit (TBU) assets of Fultec Semiconductor, Inc.^[8]

Acquisitions edit

2001: Joslyn GDT Division assets^[9]
2003: Telecom Protection assets from Texas Instruments Sensors & Controls Division
2003: Microelectronic Modules Corporation assets
2004: MMC's Switch Power Products assets
2004: RUF Automotive Group
2005: Tyco/Meggitt's Fuel Card Product assets
2006: J.W. Miller Magnetics Business
2006: the Automotive Controls Division assets of SSI Technologies
2006: Polymer PTC division of Therm-O-Disc, Inc.
2008: the Transient Blocking Unit (TBU) assets of Fultec Semiconductor, Inc.^[10]
2008: the Protection Products assets of Emerson Network Power Energy Systems
2009: Central Office Surge Protection Products assets from Corning Cable Systems LLC
2012: Assets from Jensen Devices AB, Stockholm, Sweden
2014: Komatsulite Mfg. Co., Ltd
2015: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.'s trimming potentiometer business
2021: Kaschke Components GmbH

References edit

^ "Company overview of Bourns, Inc". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
^ "About Us". www.bourns.com. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
^ "Gordon Bourns wins 2018 Frank Miller Civic Achievement Award". Press Enterprise. 2018-04-30. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
^ "Gordon L. Bourns". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
^ "Gordon Bourns | BCOE". www.engr.ucr.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-12-09. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
^ Bourns, Inc. - Our Beginnings, Bourns, Inc.
^ "Bourns Marks 70 Years of Innovation". eepower.com. 2017-06-12. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
^ "Bourns launches transient blocking unit circuit protection technology". eetimes.com. 2008-11-19. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
^ http://www.bourns.com/docs/technical-documents/backgrounder.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}
^ "Bourn Acquires Assets of Fultec Semiconductor | Technology Transactions". Archived from the original on 2018-12-09. Retrieved 2018-12-07.