[1] In addition to its American operations, Copperweld maintains a production facility in Telford, England, and a distribution hub in Liège, Belgium.
A group of engineers (S. E. Bramer, Jacob Roth, F. R. S. Kaplan, Simon Loeb and William Smith, Sr.) in the Pittsburgh industrial town of Rankin, Pennsylvania first created a permanent metallurgical bond between copper and steel in 1915.
In conjunction with Battelle Memorial Institute, the company developed a second bimetallic product line, an aluminum-covered steel wire that it branded as Alumoweld® in 1959.
The company expanded into the primary and secondary metallurgical products market, offering a diversified product range that included steel pipe and tube; bimetallic wire, strand and strip; steel bars and plates; solder and skiving, and employed thousands at multiple facilities in the United States, Canada, Japan and Britain.
The bimetallic process moved beyond simple copper and steel, and eventually also combined metals and alloys such as aluminum, tin, brass, gold, nickel and silver.
French holding company Imétal S.A. (today known as Imerys), owned by the Rothschild family, acquired controlling interest of Copperweld Corporation in 1975.
In 1978, the company expanded its bimetallic wire production to Campinas, Brazil in a joint venture with Erico International Corp. Copperweld would buy the entire operation from its partner just three years later.
[3] A new division and revenue stream were created in 1980 with the advent of Copperweld Energy, which bought stakes in Houston-based Guardian Oil Company.
The ostensible purpose of Copperweld's involvement in the energy business was to drill for natural gas on the grounds of (or near) its operations in Ohio and Pennsylvania, to ensure a steady supply for its factories.
Both operations were relocated to Copperweld Southern in Fayetteville, largely due to cheaper labor costs in the South.
In 1989, Copperweld and Fujikura announce a second joint venture together, the United States Alumoweld Company, to be located in Duncan, South Carolina.
At that time, the company was the largest producer of structural steel tubing in North America with 23 plants and employing 3,500 people.
It was the only division of the previous conglomerate to continue to operate under the Copperweld name, and kept the established brand as a registered trademark for its copper-clad steel conductors.
By acquiring Copperweld, it not only opened up a worldwide distribution channel, it also gained product diversification by the presence of CCS wire in its new subsidiary's lineup.
A group of investors headed by Chairman Fu Li delisted from the Nasdaq on December 27, 2012, returning the company to private ownership gain.
[7] In October 2019, Kinderhook Industries LLC announced its acquisition of Copperweld, citing the company's proprietary manufacturing and differentiated products that provide an array of compelling growth avenues to pursue, particularly in the automotive.