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Wah Chang Corporation

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For the artist and designer see, see Wah Chang.
Wah Chang Corporation
IndustryManufacturing
Founded1916[1][2]
FounderKuo-Ching Li
HeadquartersAlbany, Linn County, Oregon
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Kuo-Ching Li; Lynn D. Davis
RevenueIncrease US$$265 million (FY 2005)[3]
Number of employees
1,100[4]
WebsiteOfficial Website

Wah Chang Corporation was an American manufacturing company in the metal or alloy industry based in Albany, Oregon in the United States. Since 2014, it has been a business unit of Allegheny Technologies and makes corrosion-resistant metals, such as hafnium, niobium, titanium, vanadium, and zirconium.[4]

History

[edit]

In 1916 (some sources say 1914[5][6]), Chinese American mining engineer Kuo-Ching "KC" Li Sr.[2] founded the company in New York state, under the name Wah Chang Trading Corporation.[5] Wah Chang is Cantonese for "fortunate enterprise"[6] or "great development".[7] This expanded as an international tungsten ore and concentrate trading company.[2]

In 1946, the company built a plant in Union City, New Jersey.

In the 1950s, it was also operating tungsten mines in Calento, Nevada, and near Bishop, California.[5]

In 1953, Stephen W. H. Yih, who had master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, was hired by Wah Chang Trading Corporation in New York to head up the Titanium Project.

In 1955, Kuo-Ching Li Sr., Founder of the Wah Chang Trading Corporation, New York, sent his top engineer, Stephen W. H. Yih to the US Bureau of Mines Titanium Development Plant in Boulder City NV[8] to learn how to make the metal.[4] This is where he met Wing Muin Mark, who was directing operations at the Titanium Development Plant. Within one year, Mark and Yih collaborated to produce the highest purity titanium in the world.

In 1956, the Energy Commission (AEC) contracted with Wah Chang to operate the U.S. Bureau of Mines zirconium plant in Albany, Oregon, to develop high-purity zirconium for use in the United States Navy's nuclear program. After Wah Chang was granted an additional two-year contract, it decided to build its own zirconium production facility.[4]

In May 1956, the Albany, Oregon-based Wah Chang Corporation hired Wing Muin Mark, as its second employee behind Yih. Mark was tasked with designing the plant and production equipment and supervising operations for the new Zirconium plant. Wah Chang began construction of its new plant in August. And on Christmas Day 1956, just four months later, the first commercially produced batch of Zirconium sponge was pulled from the reduction furnaces at the new production facility. Mark later developed the processes for making high-purity Hafnium and Titanium.

Li remained with the company until his death in 1961, serving as president until 1960 and then board chairman.[2]

Teledyne years (1967-1996)

[edit]

Wah Chang was privately owned by K.C. Li until 1967, when it was acquired by Teledyne,[9] the main Albany plant (located in the then-unincorporated area known as Millersburg) becoming a subsidiary named Teledyne Wah Chang Albany, or TWCA.[10] In 1966, Wah Chang had around 1,200 employees, in plants in Albany, Oregon; Glen Cove, New York; Huntsville, Alabama; and Texas City, Texas, and sales of $40.7 million.[11] The Albany plant was by far the largest, and at the time of its sale to Teledyne, it accounted for around $20 million in annual revenue, with 860 employees at that location.[9] The Alabama factory became a separate subsidiary named Teledyne Wah Chang Huntsville.[12]

In the early 1970s, Wing Mark proposed the idea of making high-purity Hafnium Crystal Bar to Teledyne Wah Chang Albany. He went on to design the production plant, equipment, and process which produced a 99.99999% Hafnium purity, earning him the nickname, “Mr. Hafnium.”

In 1975, TWCA had 1,400 employees,[10] and had $100 million in annual sales.[7]

In 1979, Mark Siddall developed a method for the isotope separation of Zirconium as U.S. patent 4,487,629. After separation the desired isotopes are converted to the metal by the van Arkel-de Boer process.

In 1982, it entered a joint venture with Mitsui and Ishizuka Research to form Zirconium Industry Corp. Zirconium sponge was produced by this venture in Japan to refine the zirconium sand at a new plant from 1983.[4]

The Millersburg plant was listed as a Superfund site in 1983, requiring environmental clean-up, which the company carried out over the following several years.[13]

Its Glen Cove, New York plant on the North Shore of Long Island became an EPA Superfund site sometime after 1989.[4]

In the 1990s, the company was victimized by the peace dividend after the end of the Cold War,[4] although it still generated research output like U.S. patent 5,171,549 and U.S. patent 5,581,003.

Allegheny Technologies subsidiary (1996-present)

[edit]

After TWCA merged with Allegheny Ludlum Corporation in 1996, to become Allegheny Technologies Incorporated, the company became ATI Wah Chang.

Wah Chang People

[edit]
  • Kuo-Ching "KC" Li Sr. - Founder, President, and Chairman of Wah Chang Corporation.
  • Wing Muin Mark (a.k.a. "Mr. Hafnium") - Chief Engineer/Architect/Operations Manager at Wah Chang Corporation and Teledyne Wah Chang Albany, who developed the processes for producing high-purity Hafnium (99.99999%), Zirconium, and Titanium. Mark received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry and a Minor in Metallurgy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1949.
  • Stephen W. H. Yih - Engineer and President (after Kuo-Ching Li Sr.) of Teledyne Wah Chang Albany in Albany. Yih served as president for 20 years.[14]
  • Edmund F. Baroch - Vice President of Teledyne Wah Chang in Albany, Oregon

Merger and Acquisition

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  • 1916 Kuo-Ching Li founded Wah Chang Trading Corporation in New York state.
  • 1967 Acquired by Teledyne and became Teledyne Wah Chang Albany (TWCA) located in Albany, Oregon. It became a subsidiary of Teledyne.
  • Wah Chang's Alabama plant became Teledyne Wah Chang Huntsville, a subsidiary of Teledyne.
  • 1996 Teledyne acquired by Allegheny Ludlum Corporation, which created parent company named Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI). Teledyne Wah Chang became ATI Wah Chang.
  • 2014 ATI Wah Chang renamed ATI Specialty Alloys and Components, a business unit of ATI.

ATI

[edit]

In March 2014,[15] it was renamed ATI Specialty Alloys and Components.[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "From a history of 'great developments'..." Wah Chang Corporation. Archived from the original on July 27, 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-09.
  2. ^ a b c d "Albany Plant Official Dies [obituary of Kuo-Ching Li]". The Oregonian. March 9, 1961. p. 9.
  3. ^ "Company History: Wah Chang". Answers.com. Retrieved 2010-07-09.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Wah Chang".
  5. ^ a b c Ferguson, James H. (May 11, 1956). "Business Briefs: New Industrial Resident [Wah Chang moving to Oregon]". The Oregonian. Section 2, p. 10.
  6. ^ a b Hauser, Paul (January 19, 1958). "Albany's Large Zirconium Industry Outgrowth of Experimental Plant". The Sunday Oregonian. Section 1, p. 34.
  7. ^ a b "Exotic metal plant also yields exotic odors". The Oregonian. June 17, 1976. p. D9.
  8. ^ "Bureau of Mines Boulder City Experimental Station, Titanium Development Plant, Date Street north of U.S. Highway 93, Boulder City, Clark County, NV".
  9. ^ a b Pratt, Gerry (July 9, 1967). "N-Power Boom Aids Exotic Metals Plant". The Sunday Oregonian. Section 1, p. 30.
  10. ^ a b "In reorganization: Longtime Wah Chang leader axed". The Sunday Oregonian. September 5, 1975. p. D9.
  11. ^ "Firm Moves Into Metals [Acquisition by Teledyne]". The Sunday Oregonian. April 5, 1967. Section 3, p. 7.
  12. ^ "Plant may spur Albany output". The Oregonian. June 26, 1984. p. D13.
  13. ^ "Teledyne Wah Chang: Millersburg, Linn County". Oregon Health Authority. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  14. ^ "Stephen W. H. Yih". democratherald.com. March 16, 2009. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
  15. ^ "ATI renames business units". Metal Powder Report. April 1, 2014. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  16. ^ "Albany, Oregon, USA". Allegheny Technologies Inc. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
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