NAME(S) ON TILE:                 BRUCE PLASTICS, INC.

DONOR NAME(S):                   BRUCE PLASTICS, INC.

Bruce Plastics was founded in 1952 near downtown Pittsburgh (at the site of the current Duquesne University).  This was at the early beginnings of the plastics industry in the United States.  It is now located in Robinson Township.

As a result of the fact that Bruce was located in the same building as a growing luggage manufacturer, in its early days Bruce concentrated on manufacturing plastic handles for the luggage and case industry.  When the domestic luggage industry started to decline, Bruce broadened its marketing efforts to sell handles to manufacturers of tool boxes, industrial cases, musical instrument cases, packaging, and sample books.  Bruce Plastics popularized many innovative concepts in the manufacture of plastic handles, including Wire-Core handles, with a steel wire insert molded inside of a plastic frame, and overmolded handles, which combine two different type of plastic into one finished product.

Over the years Bruce became the largest U.S. manufacturer of plastic injection molded

handles.

Under its Polylastomer trademark, Bruce Plastics also has become one of the country’s leading producers of rubber-like plastic components.  These small parts include non-skid bumpers and feet which are used on the bottom of many of the country's most popular small appliances.

Although Bruce Plastics is not Pittsburgh’s most well known company, its handles, feet, and bumpers are found on products in almost every American home.