verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message minco type private industry electronic founded 1956 headquarters fridley minnesota usa key people dana schurr ceo products flexible heaters thermal management flexible circuits temperature sensors and temperature monitoring and control instrumentation number of employees 650 website www.minco.com minco is a privately owned company with over 650 employees worldwide . based in fridley minnesota the company designs and manufactures flexible printed circuit boards and interconnects rtd based temperature sensors and assemblies thermal solutions for medical defense aerospace industrial and food service applications . 1 company history edit minco products inc was founded by karl schurr on october 2 1956 as an engineering firm designing and building precision electromechanical devices on a subcontract basis . in 1958 the company decided to concentrate on the development of proprietary products . one of the first efforts was flexible wire wound temperature sensors for aerospace guidance systems which led to the development of flexible heaters introduced by minco in 1960 . also during the 1960s & 1970s the temperature sensor line was expanded to include industrial rtd probes bearing sensors and rtd stator sensors to which the company supplied to large rotating apparatus generators manufacturers ge westinghouse reliance electric brown boveri and energy management system contractors . the company s heater product line also expanded into commercial aerospace and medical applications . minco s combination etched foil heater platinum wire sensors were used on many nasa projects including the 1976 viking lander heated soil samples and skylab inertial guidance system . of note nasa investigated minco due to the erratic gyros on skylab causing spacewalks to replace the igs . the heater sensor was found not to be the problem . minco also manufactured one of the first etched foil heaters for early wet copy machines made by 3m . they opened their second manufacturing facility for this production . in 1974 the company adapted its precision etching and laminating expertise to the manufacture of flexible printed circuits . these first circuits served as interconnects in cardiac pacemakers . temperature instruments transmitters meters controllers and alarms were also added in the 1970s . recent products include optically clear heaters hdi and rigid flex circuits isolated temperature transmitters and high temperature rtd elements . karl schurr remained as company president until his death in 1999 at which time his son dana schurr assumed the role of president . corporate business units edit minco s thermofoil heater business unit is the world s largest manufacturer of polyimide kapton insulated etched foil heaters . they are generally used in applications where low weight low profile and high energy efficiency as well as precision conductive heat input are more critical than cost . one example of this would be medical diagnostic equipment . they also sell transparent heaters silicone rubber insulated heaters high temperature mica insulated heaters and a unique thick film on aluminum heaters . minco s flex circuits business unit designs and manufactures custom flexible circuits for high end applications for use in critical medical and defense products . the temperature sensors & instruments business unit manufactures custom temperature elements and assemblies for the rotating equipment industry large generators turbines and motors . it also sells customized temperature and relative humidity sensors temperature transmitters and signal processing transmitting temperature monitoring control and alarm solutions . references edit isa journal . instrument society of america . 1966 . p. 92 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title minco products & oldid 732274239 categories companies based in minnesotaprivately held companies based in minnesotacompanies established in 1956anoka county minnesotaflexible electronicshidden categories articles needing additional references from july 2015all articles needing additional references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 30 july 2016 at 20 28 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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