CoorsTek

CoorsTek, Inc. is a privately owned manufacturer of engineered ceramics, semiconductor tooling, plastic tubing, medical devices and other industrial products. CoorsTek headquarters and primary factories are located in Golden, Colorado, USA, near the foothills west of Denver. The company is owned by a trust of the Coors family. The president and chairman is John K. Coors, a great-grandson of founder and brewing magnate Adolph Coors, Sr..

History

Adolph Coors and John Herold

Rhineland-born Adolph Coors (1847–1929) opened the Colorado Glass Works in 1887 to manufacture beer bottles for his brewery, the Adolph Coors Brewing Company, west of Denver. In 1888, the glass works, incorporated as Coors, Binder & Co., was idled by a strike and never re-opened. The Glass Works was leased to German-born John J. Herold in 1910, who incorporated the Herold China and Pottery Company on the site at 600 Ninth St in Golden. Herold used clay from nearby mines to make dinnerware and heat-resistant porcelain ovenware under the trademark Herold Fireproof China. The now-abandoned clay pits form the western boundary of the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) campus. CSM professor Herman Fleck helped Herold perfect his glazing technique. Adolph Coors became the majority stockholder and was elected to the board of directors of Herold China in 1912. John Herold resigned, and Adolph Coors Company acquired Herold China in 1914. Herold returned later in 1914 to manage the plant, but left permanently in 1915. CSM evaluated Fireproof China for industrial applications in 1914, and found it suitable. The company began producing chemical porcelain in 1915 as a result of a World War I embargo on German imports. Adolph Coors’ second son, Herman Frederik Coors, was named manager in 1916. Herold China was renamed Coors Porcelain Company in 1920, and the trademark "Coors U.S.A." was first used.