Tempco

Building Precision Heat Since 1972 When Fermin Adames, Sr. founded Tempco in August 1972, he started with a simple but powerful vision: to offer the best products and customer service in the industrial heating industry. What began in a modest 1,500-square-foot facility with just three employees has grown into one of the world's leading manufacturers of custom electric heating elements, temperature sensors, and temperature control systems—all while staying true to that original commitment to excellence. Today, from our headquarters in Wood Dale, Illinois, we continue to manufacture precision thermal solutions that power industries across the globe. But more than five decades later, what really sets us apart isn't just our technology or our capabilities—it's the dedication to doing things right that Fermin instilled from day one. What Makes Tempco Different We're engineers and problem-solvers first. When you come to us with a heating challenge, we don't just hand you a catalog and wish you luck. We roll up our sleeves and work with you to design a solution that fits your exact specifications. Whether you need a standard cartridge heater delivered quickly or a completely custom cast-in heating system for a one-of-a-kind application, we approach every project with the same attention to detail and commitment to quality. Our ISO 9001:2015 certification isn't just a badge on the wall—it's a reflection of how seriously we take manufacturing excellence. Many of our products carry UL certification and CSA recognition, giving you the confidence that what we build meets or exceeds the highest industry standards for safety and performance. Innovation in Our DNA Some of our early products were genuine industry firsts. The "Duraband," our patented mica-insulated band heater, was one of the original products we manufactured back in the early days. We've held patents for innovations that moved the industry forward, and that spirit of innovation continues to drive us today. In 2019, we launched our new line of TEC Temperature Controllers, featuring bright multicolor LCD displays, compact designs, and advanced Fuzzy+ PID control that represents the next generation of precision temperature management. We don't just adapt to changes in technology and industry needs—we help shape them. Our engineering team works on the cutting edge of thermal solutions, developing new approaches to heating challenges that our customers face every day. Capabilities That Set the Standard Walk through our facilities and you'll see why we can take on projects that others can't. Our in-house capabilities are extensive and constantly evolving: Our UL 508A, UL 698A, and UL 1203 certified panel shop allows us to build custom power and temperature control panels to your exact specifications, with full UL certification right out the door. Our nonferrous foundry, established in 1982, gives us the ability to manufacture aluminum and bronze cast-in heaters using both permanent mold and no-bake sand processes. This means we can create custom castings that integrate heating elements directly into metal components—perfect for applications where uniform heat distribution is critical. Our CNC machine shop is equipped with 13 turning centers with automatic bar feeders and 12 vertical CNC milling machines. We can manufacture virtually any fitting, flange, or custom component from materials including aluminum, brass, alloy steel, stainless steel, and composites. When you need a heating solution with complex mechanical integration, we have the tools and expertise to make it happen. Our sheet metal fabrication department produces custom shrouds, enclosures, and mounting hardware that perfectly complement your heating elements. Our pattern shop creates the wooden patterns needed for our foundry work, allowing us to produce unique castings for one-off projects or small production runs. This vertical integration means faster turnaround times for you and better quality control for us. When we say we can handle everything from concept to completion, we mean it literally—because we do it all under one roof. The Products That Power Industry Our product range has grown far beyond those first cartridge heaters and band heaters, though we still make thousands of those every year. Today, we manufacture: Electric Heaters and Elements in every configuration you can imagine—band heaters, cartridge heaters, cast-in heaters, ceramic fiber heaters, coil and cable heaters, drum heaters, flexible heaters, heat trace cable, heated hose and tubing, infrared heaters, process heaters, strip heaters, tank heaters, and tubular heaters. If you need to heat something, we probably make a solution for it. Temperature Sensors including a full range of thermocouples (mineral insulated, multipoint, base and noble metals), RTD sensors (accu-ohm, sanitary, melt bolt types), thermistors, and all the accessories that go with them—jack panels, thermowells, protection tubes, and sensor wire and cable. Temperature Control Products from individual controllers and SCR power controllers to thermostats, relays, and complete custom-built control consoles engineered for your specific process. Turnkey Process Heating Systems that bring it all together—heating elements, temperature sensors, and control products integrated into a complete thermal loop system designed specifically for your application. The beauty of our approach is the flexibility. Need something from our standard catalog shipped tomorrow? We can do that. Need us to engineer something completely custom that's never been built before? We do that too. We produce thousands of design variations across hundreds of applications, and we're constantly adding to that library based on what our customers need. Industries We Serve Our thermal solutions show up in more places than you might expect. We work with manufacturers in: Plastics processing (extrusion, injection molding, blow molding) Aerospace and defense Food and beverage processing Medical device manufacturing Pharmaceutical production Semiconductor manufacturing Chemical processing Automotive manufacturing Additive manufacturing (3D printing) Packaging equipment Laboratory and scientific equipment Power generation Commercial dishwashing equipment Wind power From the mass spectrometry analyzers that help researchers make discoveries to the 3D printers creating tomorrow's products, from the plastics extrusion lines producing everyday items to the semiconductor fabrication equipment making the chips that power our devices—Tempco heating solutions are there, working reliably behind the scenes. Why Our Customers Keep Coming Back Ask our customers what they value most about working with Tempco, and you'll hear the same themes over and over: responsive service, engineering expertise, consistent quality, and surprisingly fast turnaround times. We don't believe in making you wait weeks or months for a quote or a solution. When you reach out to us, you talk to people who actually understand heating applications—not just order-takers reading from a script. Our team includes engineers who can discuss watt density calculations, thermal cycling requirements, and materials compatibility. We speak your language because we've been solving these problems for over fifty years. And when we commit to a delivery date, we hit it. Our manufacturing processes are streamlined for efficiency without sacrificing the quality you need. Whether you're ordering one custom unit or a thousand standard heaters, you can count on us to deliver when we say we will. Made in the USA, Proud of It In an era when manufacturing has moved offshore, we're proud to say that Tempco products are designed and manufactured right here in the United States. Our Wood Dale facility is where the magic happens—where our engineers collaborate with customers, where our machinists precision-craft components, where our foundry pours castings, and where our assembly technicians put together heating systems that will run reliably for years. When you buy from Tempco, you're supporting American manufacturing jobs and getting products built to standards we can stand behind. Looking Forward As we move into our sixth decade, we're excited about what's ahead. Industries are evolving, new technologies are emerging, and heating challenges are becoming more complex and demanding. That's exactly the kind of environment where Tempco thrives. We're investing in new manufacturing capabilities, developing new products, and expanding our engineering team to serve you better. But the fundamentals that Fermin established in 1972—quality products, expert service, and a genuine commitment to solving your problems—those will never change. Whether you're dealing with a straightforward heating application or facing a thermal challenge that keeps you up at night, we'd love to hear about it. Because at Tempco, every heating problem is an opportunity to do what we do best: engineer a solution that works perfectly for your application. That's been our mission since 1972, and it's what drives us every single day.