Raychem Corporation was founded in Menlo Park

Menlo Park, California

Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...

/Redwood City, California

Redwood City, California

Redwood City is a California charter city located on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California, approximately 27 miles south of San Francisco, and 24 miles north of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans from its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people, to its tradition as a port for...

 in 1957 by Paul Cook, James B. Meikle, and Richard W. Muchmore. The original name of the company was RayTherm Wire and Cable and later formed a subsidiary

Subsidiary

A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...

 named RayClad Tubes. The company changed names to avoid confusion with Raytheon. The company's founding technology was radiation cross-linked wire and cable targeted at military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

 and aerospace

Aerospace

Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...

 applications. This was the first known use of Radiation Chemistry

Radiation chemistry

Radiation chemistry is a subdivision of nuclear chemistry which is the study of the chemical effects of radiation on matter; this is very different from radiochemistry as no radioactivity needs to be present in the material which is being chemically changed by the radiation...

 for commercial products. The company soon invented heat-shrinkable tubing

Heat-shrink tubing

Heat shrink tubing is a mechanically expanded extruded plastic tube ordinarily made of nylon or polyolefin, which shrinks when heated in an effort to return to the original relaxed diameter as when it was extruded...

 also targeted at electronic applications. By 1980 the company had expanded to over 30 countries and made the FORTUNE 500

Fortune 500

The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...

 list from rank 547 in 1980 to rank 490 in 1981, 461 in 1982, 435 in 1983, 413 in 1984, 405 in 1985, 394 in 1986, 359 in 1987, 341 in 1988, 315 in 1989, 326 in 1990, 317 in 1991, 290 in 1992, 295 in 1993, and 293 in 1994. It was recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States at that time. The company had only four CEOs until the company was acquired by Tyco International in 1999. Those CEOs were Paul Cook (Founder), Bob Halperin, (Cook's second-in-command almost from the beginning), Bob Saldich (a long-time Raychem executive, who also ran a Raychem subsidiary, RayNet) and Dick Kashnow, who was responsible for the sale of Raychem to Tyco International. At the time of the sale the company had reached sales exceeding US$2 billion and was operating in over 60 countries globally. The company invented many breakthrough technologies, including PolySwitch PPTC

Resettable fuse

A polymeric positive temperature coefficient device is a passive electronic component used to protect against overcurrent faults in electronic circuits...

 circuit protection devices, and the touchscreen

Touchscreen

A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...

, so popular today and branded under the name Elo TouchSystems. The company's alumni now populate many CEO and president positions in a variety of industries. The major market segments where Raychem operated were aerospace and defense, automotive, telecommunications, energy networks, consumer electronics and transportation.

Many products today still carry the Raychem brand; however, confusingly, two different companies sell them: Tyco International

Tyco International

Tyco International Ltd. is a highly diversified global manufacturing company incorporated in Switzerland, with United States operational headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey...

 split into three companies in 2007: Tyco International, Tyco Electronics

Tyco Electronics

TE Connectivity, Ltd., previously known as Tyco Electronics, Ltd., and formerly a segment of Tyco International, is a leading global provider of engineered electronic components, network solutions, undersea telecommunication systems, and specialty products for customers in more than 150 countries...

 and Covidien

Covidien

Covidien , formerly Tyco Healthcare, is a healthcare device and supply company, incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, although its corporate offices are located in Mansfield, Massachusetts. On June 29, 2007, Covidien became an independent publicly traded company after being spun off from Tyco...

. Tyco International uses the Raychem brand name for Industrial Heat Tracing Technology, while Tyco Electronics sells the other original Raychem products (shrink tubing, wire and cable PolySwitch Devices, Elo TouchSystems, SolderSleeve Devices, etc.) under the Raychem brand name.