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HAPPILY TURNING FROM
GUNS TO BUTTER
THE BERLIN WALL
FELL, BUT FREDERICKS CO. HAS STAYED UP.
By Henry J. Holcomb,
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The Fredericks Co., a small
manufacturing firm in Huntingdon Valley, lost 85 percent of
its business when the Cold War ended. That would sink most
100-employee companies. But this one rebounded, and is now
stronger than ever.
"We now have four or five major product lines, each in a
different market, where we once lived and died with defense
activities," said Walter A. Reimann, president and owner of
the firm.
From its founding three years before World War II through
the end of the Cold War, the company made tools of war, such
as the heat sensors in the noses of heat-seeking missiles.
That business pretty much dried up after the Berlin Wall
came down in 1989. Now military sales account for an average
of 5 percent of its $8 million to $10 million in annual
sales. A quarter of its total sales come from overseas.
There was a time in 1992 and 1993 "when the profit was
squeezed," said Reimann, but the firm has never lost money.
The Fredericks Co. has turned its core expertise - working
with glass and various metals with great precision in often
tiny instruments - into successful products for the civilian
market.
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It now makes a host of small electronic devices, used in
X-ray machines, satellites and elsewhere, Reimann said,
pulling sample items from a box where he had hurriedly
packed them when his plant was flooded briefly during
Tropical Storm Floyd. The storm caused only minor
damage.
These devices, among other things, measure the number of
molecules in a chamber used for semiconductor manufacturing,
sense tilt precisely, keep track of elapsed time, and
suppress vibration.
A Fredericks sensor precisely monitors the lean in Italy's
Leaning Tower of Pisa. "All you need for all you measure," a
Fredericks brochure proclaims.
Fredericks also is a leading maker of glass Dewar flasks,
used in infrared assemblies, thermal imaging systems, and
optical electronics instrumentation. It has become a
preferred supplier to many companies, including Burle
Industries Inc., Honeywell Inc., Kevex Instruments, Lockheed
Martin Corp., Raytheon Co., and Spectra Precision Inc.
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