The company was founded in 1910 and is still under third generation family management. Its first encounter with high-tech plating came in 1938 when Cohan-Epner, named after the founding partners, was asked to silver plate some of the earliest microwave RADAR systems for The Columbia (University) Radiation Labs.
Epner's infrared experience began in 1972 with a Xerox contract for high volume copier reflectors. A truck-load of rejects for low reflectivity led to the purchase of an infrared spectrophotometer. The lesson; what appeared to be truly beautiful gold plating to the eye, fell far short of the Xerox IR reflectivity spec.
In the mid 1970's the company was reorganized as a smaller firm concentrating on high tech projects including the plating of difficult substrates such as moly and titanium, and plating on engineering plastics like Duroid, Teflon and Ultem. And of course, Laser Gold and Laser Black for the optics community. In 1985 the name was changed to Epner Technology.
Today the company consists of some forty dedicated employees that include three chemical engineers and one PhD chemist in the Laboratory; some 130 combined years of plating know-how in those four people alone.
The facility is housed in a fully sprinkled 15,000 square foot brick building in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, less than 10 minutes from LaGuardia Airport. In 1999, a new $70,000 Process Control Laboratory was installed as the second part of a 5 year rebuilding program. Sales and Administration occupy part of a company-owned 40,00 square-foot building near-by.