Norton plastics tubing

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PTFE Tubing. Film Cast Liner Tubing. Ram Extruded Tubing. Reinforced Tubing. Biomaterial Delivery Devices. Nitinol Components. Its piece-by-piece construction of grinders was at odds with the needs of industry. Some products went 28 or more years without significant improvements. It also gave up leadership and business to companies that developed more efficient "centerless" external grinders.

In part, this stagnation was due to management's primarily Jeppson and Higgins, the owner-operators loyalty to their original product, abrasives. Charles Norton, after all, had been an outsider. And Charles Norton himself opposed the new machines, favoring his own. In the early s, in an attempt to correct the situation, the company reorganized and redesigned its product line, although resources were withheld from the machine division and put into the construction of abrasives plants. This company, Norton's first acquisition, added coated abrasives and sandpaper to Norton's line.

In fact, these products became the most profitable for Norton well into the s, while the company's grinders and bonded abrasives languished.

However, the two companies rarely cooperated or pooled their talents and know-how. Behr-Manning became a leader in the development of belt sanders in the s, although its main competitor, 3M Company, consistently led it in sales.

By the late s, Behr-Manning monthly profits actually outstripped those of the parent company. Behr-Manning was eventually absorbed into Norton. Overseas expansion, begun in by Charles Allen, grew slowly and for a long time was mainly concerned with sales. Norton's first foreign plant, the German Deutsche Norton Gesellschaft, was built in Its production was disrupted by World War I, and after the war Norton was hesitant to upgrade it.

Norton did build a plant outside Paris, and established facilities in Canada and Japan in the s. In general, Norton considered these operations peripheral, and in any case, in order to maintain secrecy, all bonds and grains were made and shipped from Worcester. In the ten largest abrasives manufacturers formed Durex Abrasives Corporation, whose purpose it was to market American abrasives overseas. Over the years, this expanded Norton's market to a greater degree than it could have accomplished on its own, at least during the initial period.

In the s, s, and s, the company built abrasives and other plants throughout the world. By the s, it had about 90 such facilities. In Norton was still a family company; the third generation of Jeppsons and Higginses still ran it. However, the need to decentralize authority and bring on competent outsiders to manage the company had been evident since the s and before.

Several steps were undertaken. First, the company went public in This step enabled the company to, among other things, create a bonus plan that would attract professional managers. The company then recruited professional managers to oversee the company. It then diversified into new industries, including the manufacturing of safety products and petroleum and mining tools.

Finally, it decentralized authority over the various parts of the business. This company was involved in aerospace research and in areas such as the manufacture of transistors and semiconductors, but had also developed such consumer products as frozen orange juice and vacuum lens coatings for binoculars and periscopes. The hope was that the acquisition would push Norton into the consumer market.

In fact, NRC began to turn out such products as "space blankets," developed from space suit materials, as well as other profitable items. Its success in these endeavors encouraged further diversification.

NRC also helped reorganize Norton's research operations. By the mids, the contribution to total sales of abrasives had dropped 15 percent as plastic tubing, vacuum equipment, space blankets, rare metal coatings, and construction equipment contributed an increasing share of the company's revenue.

However, by the end of the decade these sales faltered and the firm was forced to borrow for working capital. Back Industrial. Back Life Sciences. Back Businesses. You are here Home About Us. Stock Description Catalog Pg. Price Drop Ship. More in This Category.