Littelfuse

Early history

Edward V. Sundt founded Littelfuse in 1927 in Chicago, Illinois as Littelfuse Laboratories. Prior to founding Littelfuse, Sundt had worked for General Electric and Stewart-Warner, where he found diagnostic equipment frequently experienced electrical failure. Sundt developed Littelfuse's first product, a small protective fuse, to regulate current in diagnostic equipment and prevent electrical failure. When the US government refused Sundt a trademark for Little fuse (the small protective fuse) on the grounds that the words were too common, Sundt compromised by reversing the l and the e to form Littelfuse.

Littelfuse was incorporated and renamed Littelfuse, Inc. in 1938.

Littelfuse became a public company in 1962. The company retained founder Edward V. Sundt as the chairman of its board. In 1963, Littelfuse moved its headquarters from Chicago to Des Plaines, Illinois. Sundt retired in 1965 and was succeeded by Thomas Blake. Tracor purchased the company in 1968. Blake was made president of Littelfuse, which operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Tracor.

1970–1991

The company expanded its manufacturing base in the 1970s with new factories opening in Watseka, Illinois and Piedras Negras, Mexico. In 1974, the company also introduced Littelites, electronic indicator lights used in industrial and office machinery, household appliances and computers.

In 1976, Littelfuse developed Autofuse, which was the first blade-type fuse used in automobiles. The Autofuse brand was counterfeited heavily and in 1983 the company obtained an exclusionary order from the United States International Trade Commission, which barred the importation of counterfeit blade-type fuses.

In 1987, Westmark Systems purchased Tracor and its Littelfuse subsidiary in a leveraged buyout. Tracor filed for bankruptcy in 1991 and spun off Littelfuse.

Modern history

Littelfuse reincorporated in November 1991 with Howard Witt as its president and CEO. Witt had worked for Littelfuse since 1979 and had been president and CEO of Littelfuse since February 1990, when the company was still owned by Tracor. In 1991, Littelfuse offered its second IPO in company history. The company's profits rose throughout the 1990s and the company expanded its operations in Europe and Asia. Littelfuse also expanded into South America with a distribution and engineering center in São Paulo, Brazil.

Gordon Hunter replaced Witt as president and CEO of Littelfuse at the end of 2004. In 2008, Littelfuse restructured its manufacturing operations, closing 16 small manufacturing plants and opening 6 new, larger plants. The company moved its headquarters from Des Plaines, Illinois, to Chicago, Illinois, the same year.

Littelfuse designs and manufactures circuit protection products for the electronics, automotive and electrical industries. The company operates between three business unit segments: Electronics, Industrial, and Automotive. Products include: fuses and protectors, suppressors, gas discharge tubes, electronic switches, solenoids, battery management devices, solid-state relays, and protective relays.

With the acquisition of Hamlin, Inc. in 2013, Littelfuse expanded its product offering to include sensors for the automotive, industrial and consumer industries.

Littelfuse has acquired multiple companies since 1999, including:

1999 – Harris Suppression Products.

2002 – Semitron.

2003 – Teccor, a manufacturer of circuit and overvoltage protection products.