Before the Olympics had official sponsors, Bauer Products made locker handles for the 1976 Montreal Games. Charles Bacon, Bauer Products’ co-founder, still has the plain, gold key he was given as a souvenir for the company’s work.
Coincidentally, Norman Sedelbauer, Bauer’s co-founder and Bacon’s father-in-law, only used the latter half of his surname in titling the company because “his last name could not fit on a key,” said Bruce Bacon, Sedelbauer’s grandson and Bauer’s president of engineering.
Today, Bauer’s most popular products are keyless entry handles, specifically the Bauer NE Bluetooth, named with Sedelbauer’s initials. Bruce Bacon said his father, Charles Bacon, started referring to Sedelbauer by his initials when he realized he could not call him “Dad” at work. Bauer Products’ EM Bluetooth handle is named after Sedelbauer’s wife, Edna May.
In 1958, Sedelbauer started Bauer Products with all his savings and his son-in-law Charles after quitting his job at a Grand Rapids, Michigan, plating business. Two years later, Sedelbauer’s son joined the family company when he got out of the Air Force.
The family bought die casting machines and started assembling T-handles for garage doors and office furniture. Unimation, the world’s first robotics company, sold Bauer a Unimate robot in 1971, and three more later. For decades, Bauer Products produced a few thousand T-handles every day.
By 2001, Bruce Bacon, along with his brother and cousin, bought out their parents and became the third generation to run Bauer Products. At that time, the company was getting into the horse and livestock trailer industry. When horse trailer owners complained about having so many latches and keys, Bauer designed a lock series that could be keyed alike.
Though Bauer Products still sells to the horse trailer industry today, the supplier shifted focus to RVs starting in 2008. Lippert Product Manager Scott McKinnon expressed enthusiasm at the idea of keyed alike locks. Bacon said they started sharing emails with him from RVers who wanted keyed alike doors.
“Scott was probably the first guy who could see the value of it, ” said President of Operations Jon Bacon, “and that has really taken off. The end customers are the ones who really appreciate that.”
“We would do rallies where there were people with a lanyard around their neck with six different keys swinging on it,” Bruce Bacon said. “We said, ‘let us get you down to just one key,’ and a line started forming.”
Bauer Products started working on Bluetooth keyless handles in 2015, back when a single handle burned through its set of four AA batteries in two weeks.
“We put it on the back burner and let technology do its thing,’” Bruce Bacon said. “Once you start with electronics, it is a marriage and a life-time commitment because everything is always changing.” Bauer Products released its Bluetooth keyless handle in November 2020, and its four AA batteries last at least a year. Bauer’s Bluetooth keyless handles include close field technology, which activates a lock by pushing a button on your phone nearby.
