About Us / History
LEC’s Foundation
LEC was founded in 1971 by Roy B. Carpenter, Jr., the former Chief Engineer for NASA’s Apollo Moon Landing Missions and the Space Shuttle design engineering teams. Lightning problems were continual at the vehicle launch complex in Florida. When only a 50/50 chance of launch success was encountered several times, the standards were applied using lightning rods. Things became worse and the threat of shutdown increased as the strikes were drawn closer in proximity to the launch towers and delicate electronics onboard the vehicles. After studying the problems and solutions available it became clear no one had applied engineering principles to the lightning discharge process. Unbelievably, no significant improvements were made to the lightning rod concept (lightning rods are not technology), since Mr. Franklin proposed them over 260 years ago.
The new company was formed, deciding to study and apply engineering principles to lightning problems, setting out to design a lightning strike prevention system, based on physics rather than guess work or mere observation as Mr. Franklin did. After all, we now had volumes filled with more data related to lightning than before. The road would be difficult as all standards in the world are based on the lightning rod concept. Huge entrenched businesses and groups were locked into the standards and would react accordingly.
The new company studied the problems associated with lightning and designed a system using point discharge or charge transfer technology that worked so well, a full no-strike warranty was issued to each and every client who purchased a system. Over time, the success ratio or reliability of the point discharge system stands at 99.85%, with over 30,000 system years of data on over 3000 installed systems.
Time Line
Founded in 1971
In 1973, the company engineered and sold the first series-hybrid surge protection devices and since that time has registered many patents for surge protection, circuits, devices and components. The new Sandwich Block® surge protection products are a good example of a new family of engineered components LEC has designed.
In 1985 LEC introduced the Chem-Rod® a low-surge impedance, low-resistance grounding electrode, for grounding applications in difficult conditions, low-resistance requirements, or limited space requirements. A new maintenance-free rod was recently introduced, and a tin-rod for cathodically protected systems.
In 2003, LEC introduced the Retractable Grounding Assembly or RGA. The RGA is the only product that can efficiently reduce the “bound charge”, a problem in floating roof oil storage tanks, resulting in fires and losses for tank farms around the world.
In 2005, Hitachi Plant Technologies purchased a minority stake in LEC, Inc.
In 2006, LEC posted record revenue, profits, and sales. This was the result of an aggressive global expansion strategy.
