Belden

Belden is probably the best-known name in wire. It has a very complicated history. Belden CDT Inc. (which likes to be called "Belden") was formed in 2004 through the merger of Belden Inc. and Cable Design Technologies.

Joseph Belden, the founder, was born in Chicago, and graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1897. He returned to Chicago after graduation and worked as a purchasing agent for the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company, later part of ITT. He noticed that it was difficult to obtain sufficient quantities of consistently high quality silk insulated magnet wire. Recognizing an opportunity, he persuaded several of his friends to invest with him and incorporated Belden Manufacturing Company in 1902.

The first major breakthrough for Belden occurred in 1905 when "Beldenamel" insulation was created. This flexible enamel insulation would become the basis of the company's early success. In 1910 the Company moved to larger quarters in Chicago and added rubber insulated wire to its product line. Richmond, Indiana, was selected as the site of a new plant designed especially for manufacturing electrical wire. This new plant started production in 1928.

During World War II and the decade and a half of growth which followed it, a number of buildings were added to the Richmond Plant to allow for expansion. Wire mill operations were transferred from Chicago to Richmond to make the Richmond Plant completely independent and self-sufficient. This was Belden's largest manufacturing facility, at nearly 700,000 square feet, for over 70 years.

In the early 1940s, Belden products were used in tanks, airplanes, mobile radios, submarines, ships, jeeps, and other machinery. After the war, Belden was one of the first wire producers to use plastic insulation. In 1980, the company moved to its new headquarters located south of Richmond, and Belden merged with Crouse-Hinds Company, a manufacturer of electrical products located in Syracuse. In 1981, Cooper Industries, a maker of electrical products and tools, acquired the combined entity of Belden and Crouse-Hinds.

In 1993 Belden once again became an independent publicly held entity, based in St. Louis. The company  purchased other companies including Intech Cable, Alpha Wire, and the former AT&T copper cabling facility. In 2004, Belden exited the North American telecommunications cable business and closed the principal North American telecom cable plant.

Cable Design Technologies Corporation or CDT was incorporated in 1988 with its principal office located in Pittsburgh, but some of its operating companies are over 100 years old.

CDT's predecessor company, Intercole, acquired West Penn Wire in 1985. In the same year, Intercole was acquired by the Northern Group which took it private. In 1988, controlling interest was sold to the Golder, Thoma, Cressey Fund II, with the Northern Group retaining a smaller interest.

In the 1980s, the company acquired Mohawk Wire & Cable, Montrose Products Company, and  in 1990, the company established CDT International to respond to increasing demand for data transmission cable products in international markets. In the 1990s, CDT purchased several European manufacturers, as well as Manhattan Electric Cable, Red Hawk, Dearborn Wire & Cable,  Barcel, Tennecast, and Cole-Flex Corporation in the US, plus Nortel's communication cable and structured wiring products businesses in Canada, and other businesses in other countries. In the 2000s. CDT added even more companies from the US and abroad, and finally merged with Belden in 2004.