Des Champs Laboratories was founded in East Hanover, New Jersey in 1973 by Nicholas H. Des Champs to develop a patented, vacuum brazed aluminum heat exchanger that could be easily formed into any shape.

Several contract jobs, unrelated to the original patent, were undertaken. One of these was designing and building a prototype heat exchanger that would cool the cockpit of an F-15 fighter aircraft prior to takeoff and after landing. It was then that the Z-DUCT® air-to-air heat exchanger was conceived.