Bourns, Inc.

Last updated
Bourns, Inc.
Company type Privately held company
Industry Electronics
Founded1947;77 years ago (1947) in Altadena, California
FoundersMarlan Bourns
Rosemary Bourns
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Gordon Bourns (Chairman and CEO)
Number of employees
9,000
Website bourns.com
The "TRIMIT" potentiometer, one of the company's early innovations Bourns TRIMIT trimming potentiometer 2016-11-06.jpg
The "TRIMIT" potentiometer, one of the company's early innovations

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]

Contents

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

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

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

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References

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