History of Lucas-Milhaupt and its brands
Lucas-Milhaupt, Inc. was founded in 1942 as a tool manufacturer, but soon turned to the production of silver alloy brazing preforms for the joining of metals. The use of preforms was a new technology that accelerated greatly due to the demand of World War II. In 1967, Lucas-Milhaupt was acquired by Handy & Harman, a widely diversified industrial manufacturer with a rich history of product and process innovation.
Handy & Harman began in 1867 as a trader of precious metals but soon became precious metal fabricators, refiners and processors. The development of a major new product line, brazing filler metals and fluxes for joining metals, enabled the growth path toward industry leadership in brazing technology. As early as 1905, Handy & Harman began supplying customers with small quantities of customized "silver solders" used to join or repair silver articles. These solders gradually found application beyond the arts industry and were increasingly used by general industry to join all types of metals with strong, leak-tight bonds. These materials became known as EASY-FLO®, SIL-FOS® and HANDY FLUX™ and have been synonymous with brazing excellence for over 75 years.
Over the years, Handy & Harman technicians continued to develop several groundbreaking new product families including: the SILVALOY® family of alloys for cadmium-free metal joining, TRIMET®, a tri-metal clad metal strip for joining mining and cutting tools, and PREMABRAZE®, high purity vacuum tube grade filler metals for electrical/electronic applications.
Lucas-Milhaupt Continues to Grow Globally
Lucas Milhaupt has continued to grow globally as it has added companies to the Lucas Milhaupt brand. In Canada, Handy & Harman of Canada, Limited, began business in 1936 as a supplier of sterling silver to the Canadian marketplace. Today, doing business as Lucas-Milhaupt Toronto, it manufactures precious metal alloys, high purity VTG alloys for critical joining applications, and refining operations to reclaim precious metals from scrap. Omni Technologies Corporation became part of Lucas-Milhaupt in 2007 with its innovative products for specialized brazing and soldering applications including aluminum cored and coated materials used in the automotive and HVAC/R industries.
In Europe, Protechno s.a. became part of the group of companies in 2004. Today, Protechno now known as Lucas-Milhaupt Ribérac, is a manufacturer of specialty brazing and soldering materials (including flux cored and coated products). In 2007, our Asian operations, Lucas-Milhaupt Brazing Materials (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., in Suzhou, China, started operations supplying technical services and brazing materials for the Asian market. Together, these companies are known as Lucas Milhaupt, Global Brazing Solutions.
To meet the needs of our customers, both now and in the future, we have invested millions of dollars into our manufacturing facilities. An example of this is our recent addition of an arc emission spectrometer that measures trace impurities to ensure our customers only the highest purity materials. This, in addition to our R&D programs, will enable us to continue to supply the highest quality, most advanced products in the industry and satisfy all your metal joining requirements.
