Combustion Kinetics Corporation was founded in 1961 by John E. Guignon Sr. Where better to start this engineering products and service company but right out of his home at 12 Chipper Road in St. Louis where his wife and 9 kids were being raised. He started his company with the vision to supply quality equipment and solutions to industrial customers as a manufacturers’ representative company.

In the early years, he mainly started by supply his services in the boiler, chemical, and food industries. John Sr services included maintaining boilers, supplying fabricated equipment, and inventing solution equipment for customer’s problems. He even held two patents for inventions that were the result of his work.

John Guignon Jr began to work with CKC in 1971 after 3 years of working with Navy Engineering in Washington DC. He started to work right at 12 Chipper Road in the hallway right outside his dad’s office. Working in an office hallway seems to be a rite of passage at CKC as others have gotten their start in the same manner.

In the 1970’s, John Jr began to transition CKC from their industrial services to more industrial equipment representation. He added many quality industrial equipment companies to CKC’s line card, which many we still have today. By 1977, he owned the company and expanded by hiring more sales engineers. He led CKC for 40 years, where he led by example in forging strong relationships with customers and principals.

In 1993, John Guignon III started at CKC after working in the power industry for 4 years. He was able to help grow CKC to expand their Midwest territory along with working to add 5 new sales engineers who now have all been at CKC between 7 and 20 years. John III began his ownership of CKC in 2011 and continues his 25-year career with the company.

In 2025 CKC expanded with two new engineers including the fourth generation of the Guignon family to work at CKC. We cover territory for several manufacturers in the state of Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Our CKC family continues the tradition of great technical support, quality service, and sound relationships.