The company, with established strategic business units in North America and Europe, extended its global reach in April 1997, with the addition of Leach International Asia Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, the organization oversees the manufacture and marketing of a broad line of company products for the Asia and Pacific regions.  

Designed for applications as diverse as civil and military aviation, satellites and railway systems, Leach International's extensive line of products includes a full selection of hermetically sealed relays. Leach contactors are available with single or multi-pole contacts in latching or non-latching configurations. A variety of complementary devices provide time delay and power measurement functions. The majority of these products are available in different mounting styles and terminals. Comprehensive lines of push-button indicators, solid state power controllers and limit switches also play important roles in the company's product mix.  

Today's broad range of products can trace its heritage back more than eight decades to the development of a single product in a small laboratory in San Francisco. 

If necessity is the mother of invention, frustration well may be its father -- at least it was in the case of Val Leach. As a radio operator in the Navy during World War I, Leach conceived the idea for a break-in relay to eliminate many of the frustrations he experienced with the erratic nature of early two-way radio communications. His automatic antenna switch and power relay became the company's first product. In time, major transmitter manufacturers and, later, aircraft companies recognized the value of his invention and sales increased dramatically.  

Operations were moved to Los Angeles in 1929, and, during the next ten years, the product family was broadened to include other types of relays for the communications and electrical industries. It was not long before Leach relays became known to aircraft manufacturers and products were developed specifically for aircraft power switching as well as for aircraft communications.  

With the advent of World War II, Leach Relay Company, Inc., as it was then called, expanded its manufacturing production to support the military aircraft industry. After the death of Val Leach in 1941, company ownership passed through various hands until it was acquired by its present owners in 1949.  

During the following years, the company recorded many notable achievements, including "Balanced Armature" and "Balanced Force" relays. These designs, established the industry standard for quality, reliability and capability.  

In 1962, the company expanded into the international marketplace with the establishment of LRE, a subsidiary based in Europe.  

Leach engineers again displayed their ingenuity when in the early '70s they shrank the size of relays by 60 percent. Later in the decade, the company applied its new hybrid technology to the development of miniaturized timing circuits for time delay relays.  

In the 1980's, solid state power controllers and power control modules used in automatic power management systems continued the company's tradition of innovation.  

During the late 1980's and early 1990's, LRE acquired G.E.P.E. S.A. and Les Modeles Francais S.A. to provide the aerospace and rail markets with switching components and systems specifically designed for severe environments. By 1992, Leach consolidated all of its U.S. manufacturing operations at the present site in Buena Park, California. In 1994, Leach Corporation merged with LRE to form Leach International -- the oldest and largest supplier of aerospace relays and solid state switching devices worldwide. European operations were consolidated at Sarralbe, France, Leach International's European headquarters.  

In 1997, Leach once again extended its global reach with the addition of Leach International Asia-Pacific, Ltd. Based in Hong Kong, the organization oversees the manufacturing and marketing of a broad line of products for the Asia-Pacific region. In 1999, the company's joint venture with the Tianyi Electrotechnical Factory resulted in the formation of the Guizhou Leach-Tianyi Aviation Electrical Company in Zunyi City, China.

With operations spanning the globe, Leach International and its more than 1,000 employees and representatives in more then 21 countries are positioned at the forefront of the relay industry--designing and manufacturing quality products for today's, and tomorrow's, most challenging applications.