Larry Bill with a home built oven from Pelican Wire's 'garage days'
Pelican Wire Company was founded in 1969 in Wonder Lake, Illinois by Larry and Theresa Bill. Their vision was to build a wire insulating and sales business and move it to Naples, Florida. The company became a Delaware Corporation in 1970 and operated as a garage business until plans were completed for a metal pole building in Hebron, Illinois. In 1975, Larry and Theresa moved the business to a newly completed 2400 square foot steel building in Naples, Florida. This was the start of a gradually expanding business that led to a build-out of 10,000 square feet by 1995. The business continued to expand into 15000 square feet of manufacturing area with offices in a separate building.
Pelican Wire Company has grown by leaps and bounds since then. In 2004 the company moved into a 33,000 square feet manufacturing facility next to a bueatiful lake in White Lake Corporate Park. Here we have room to expand and grow our resistance and heater wire business, and develop new opportunities for the future.
In 2008, Pelican Wire Company transitioned to a 100% employee-owned company. This ensures that everyone employee has satisfying you – our customer – in mind. Pelican Wire Company remains a 100% USA-owned and operated company.
Pelican Wire Company is a custom insulator of wire. We specialize in 50 to 2 gauge diameter wire alloys. These alloys have properties which allow them to be used as electric (resistance) heaters, heater hook-up and extension wire, or temperature sensors (thermocouple). Our insulation materials include thermoplastics, glass, enamels, mica, TFE TEFLON® fluoropolymer, and KAPTON®. The bare wire which we insulate can be a single or stranded conductor. After insulating each wire bundle, we can bunch the insulated wire into cables up to 1/2 inch in diameter and wrap this with an outer jacket, which can be extruded or braided.
Our bare-wire insulation methods include:
- Extruding thermoplastic materials
- Spiral tape with TEFLON® fluoropolymer or mica
- Cure highly resistive enamel coatings
- Spin wrap or serve glass yarn
- Braid metal or glass-yarn overjackets
Often we apply different ‘wraps’ of these insulators on wire in order to give special properties, such as elevated (450°C/842°F) temperature use; chemical resistance; moisture resistance; tensile strength; abrasion resistance; or slickness.
Our customers include end users, OEMs, and distributors. Our in-house engineering staff is capable of full wire and cable design work, and frequently develops new products for our customers when the inquiry is vague and only the end-use is revealed. Many of our specialty wire/ insulation combinations have resulted in innovative standard products for both our customers and Pelican Wire Company.
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*Teflon is a registered trademark of Dupont