First 40 Years of Checon Corporation (1960-2000)

Preface – In the beginning, it was just a dream, like so many young men have, of starting one’s own business. As it turned out, this dream was different; it actually happened!

Why it happened still amazes me but I am convinced that it involved timing, luck, a good idea and, most of all, the willingness, especially by my wife, Patty, to take the risk. Fortunately, Patty came from an entrepreneurial family and accepted a degree of risk that few wives would have undertaken. She has made an outstanding contribution!

Success in a manufacturing business such as Checon’s is always the product of talented people working together toward a common goal even as that goal changes with new ideas. Checon has performed well over the last 50 years as the following history relates and we stand poised to progress into a challenging future!

The First 40 Years

Checon Corporation was begun 1959 as a cooperative venture between two friends, Ray Cheney and yours truly –  Don Conaway; hence the source of the unusual name.  Both of us recognized that with each other’s help, something could be done that would be difficult to do alone. Ray Cheney had a small, but successful, business, R. H. Cheney, Inc., supplying Sylvania Electric with specialty components. He saw an opportunity to gain some substantial business if he could come up with a practical contact design for a new Sylvania project.  I was the process engineer for Texas Instrument’s contact operation but was interested in starting my own business.

In 1960, Checon was incorporated on a $275.00 investment and began business as a source for precision cut metal tubing. This new product was essential for a couple of reasons; first because Sylvania would be well over a year before the new project (Sylvania’s revolutionary “Sun Gun” home movie light) was ready for the market including testing of Checon’s unique contact design and second, because it was necessary to avoid any conflict of interest while I continued with his job at Texas Instruments. While Cheney both sold tubing and supervised the Sylvania project, I built machinery and cut tubing in my basement during evenings and weekends.

In 1961 I was ready to leave my job at T. I. to spend full time on Checon. Tubing was the only product until the first Sylvania orders appeared later in the year. Over the next two years both tubing and the Sylvania contacts increased steadily and by 1963 the business was moved out of the basement and into a loft of 46 Union Street in Attleboro. Now Checon was  ready to start planning to make contact Inlay Strip material using an idea of mine that T. I. had rejected several years before.

By 1964 Checon was ready to sell contact materials in strip form but Cheney became seriously concerned with the prospect of such a small business selling against large competitors such as TI and Engelhard. In addition, his business was doing well and he was interested in bringing his family members into either Checon or R. H. Cheney, Inc.   After much discussion it was decided to transfer the now substantial Sylvania business from Checon to R. H. Cheney, Inc. in exchange for Cheney’s interest in Checon. That left me the full owner of Checon with sales of $13,000/year in tubing business but ready to sell contact strip.

1964 was an important year in that Checon sold it’s first customer for its Inlay Stripe contact material in Electro Switch Corporation of Weymouth, MA. and also contracted with it’s first Sales Representative in Lucky Somers of Chicago to sell product in the Midwest. Both events formed the foundation for the contact business that was to become Checon’s future.

In 1971 Checon moved into its own building at 84 Dunham Street in order to service substantial orders coming from large Midwest companies, primarily Square D Company. Checon now was also making the contact parts from our Inlay Strip and Toplay materials, having organized a tooling shop and a press department. Through the 1970s, Checon acquired a broader base of customers, adding majors like Allen-Bradley, Cutler-Hammer and Cherry Electric; all through the sales genius of Lucky Somers.

In 1977 Checon undertook to solve a serious situation that threatened Checon’s basic business. We had to buy our critical contact metal, silver-cadmium oxide, from our competitors and they were seeing their own contact material and parts business seriously affected by little Checon. Checon needed an independent source but a quality source was not available. The answer started with Gerry Fontaine’s work in making material from powdered metal but was carried forward by Cid Jost’s arrival from his previous position of Research Director for T. I. By 1978 Checon had qualified our own silver-cadmium oxide with our major customers but lacked sufficient production capacity to fill our needs.

The capacity problem was solved in 1981 with the creation of Chemet Corporation under Cid Jost’s inspired leadership. Chemet’s initial material made from powder was followed by the introduction of the clearly superior “M” material which has become the standard of the industry. With the Checon/Chemet partnership firmly in place, Checon was finally established as the leader in the strip contact (Inlay Stripe and Toplay) market.

During the later half of the 1980s and early ‘90s a “Quality Revolution” was taking place across the entire range of manufacturing businesses. Fortunately, by this time, Checon had built a remarkable degree of skills among it’s dedicated production team. Not only were the strip-making processes refined to great accuracy and dependability but the tooling and press work skills had responded in outstanding fashion to the new standards of quality and efficiency. Checon was clearly ready for a new chapter in its history.

By 1994 it was  time for a new generation to rise to the challenges that Checon faced and so my son Allen took over the reins as President for the coming electronic age. His expertise in welded contact assemblies was the driving force in penetrating the highly competitive market for low-power switch, appliance and automotive markets. Success in these markets called for mastering complex mechanical and electrical equipment while bringing toolmaking skills up to yet another level.

Checon’s success has been hard-won but success it was that led in 1997 to an expansion of plant facilities to include a second plant at 217 East Street. The new plant embodies Checon-developed equipment that is likely the most capable and productive in the industry. The success that it represents  stands in this, Checon’s 40th year, as a tribute to the dedicated men and women that are Checon!