RCD began as an idea in 1969 when Louis Arcidy decided to leave his position as Vice President of a major components manufacturer and start his own firm, a firm that he vowed would remain unencumbered by short term goals and quality tradeoffs. Arcidy purchased The Ronel Corporation of Goleta California, a specialty manufacturer of precision and power military-grade wirewound resistors, inductors and delay lines. After moving Ronel across the country, Arcidy along with his sons and and a team of engineers, started business in a historic mill building in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Throughout the 1950’s & 60’s, Louis Arcidy and his team made many advancements in resistive technology. His greatest technological innovation was in developing a method to eliminate most of the degrading effects of temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors on resistor performance, thereby achieving the world’s greatest level of precision and stability. Arcidy’s developments were critical to defense, medical, and aerospace applications (particularly the Mercury, Saturn, Gemini, and Apollo missions), garnering him the nickname “Mister Resistor” in 1962, the same year that John Glenn, another NH resident, became the first person to orbit the earth.
Arcidy’s reputation for engineering excellence resulted in rapid success. Some of RCD’s first customers were other resistor firms interested in expanding their product line to include precision and specialty models, a practice that continues today. In order to increase capacity and reduce costs, RCD began offshore production plants in Haiti (1975) and St.Lucia (1980). RCD also developed a unique quick-delivery production department, named the SWIFT TM program. The SWIFT program guaranteed production of almost any resistor within 2 days (i.e. Ship WithIn Fifty Two hours). The service was an instant hit and continues to help many hundreds of customers out of delivery jams every year.
Since the first year of production, RCD has grown over 100-fold, including multiple acquisitions and partnerships, with combined employment of nearly 600 dedicated people in the USA, Caribbean, and Asia. Many millions of resistors, capacitors, coils, and delay lines are produced every day. RCD continues to operate as a privately-held corporation, owned and managed by the Arcidy family. Many employees from the 1970’s still remain, as do many of its original customers, a testament to Mr. Arcidy’s vision and neverending quest for utmost quality and customer service.
Louis J. Arcidy
Founder and Continued Inspiration
