The Chatillon brand, renowned for precision weighing and force measurement equipment, has celebrated its 175th anniversary. The original Chatillon company was founded in 1835 by John Chatillon as 'John Chatillon & Sons, Inc' to manufacture weighing scales products, and has enjoyed a rich and varied history. Since 1997 it has been part of AMETEK, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange-listed company and a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices.
Currently, Chatillon products include force gauges, torque gauges, ergonomic gauges, force testers and test stands, materials testers, and force and torque sensors for use in a variety of applications and industries where accurate, quantitative results are required. These, together with Lloyd Instruments materials testing machines, are manufactured in Largo, Florida. AMETEK is still today also an important manufacturer of Chatillon weighing scales for a wide variety of uses.
Although famous for its scales and force measurement products, the company also manufactured high quality cutlery and military knives between 1900 and the late 1950s, including Foster Brothers' cutlery, once one of the world's foremost names in professional cutlery for chefs and the meat-cutting trade.
The Chatillon brand has enjoyed an enviable reputation for technical innovation, and in 1930 developed an iso-elastic alloy for use in scale springs. This made it possible to have true temperature-compensated springs in weighing devices and this led to the introduction of the legal-for-trade spring scale. In 1940, the company adapted its scale technology to produce force measurement devices and then in turn used this force measurement technology in 1992 to develop ergonomic gauges for use by the medical profession in physical therapy and ergonomics.
The natural synergy of force measurement and materials testing was harnessed in 1991, when the company became the distributor in the USA of the Lloyd Instruments range of materials testing machines. Both force testers and materials testing equipment can be used for tensile, compression, shear, friction and flexural testing. A force tester is ideal for basic force measurement applications such as peak loads and extension, while a material testing machine uses precision loadcells for more precise measurements. Chatillon force and weighing products are sold worldwide through a number AMETEK sales offices and an international distributor network.