Tech Vibe Radio (08/16/26)

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Kindling Culture Agency at the kindling culture agency.com. My Benefit Advisor at my BenefitAdvisor.com. PNC Bank at PNC.com. Saviore at saviore.com. Age Studio Meat Productions.com. Coming to you from the Huntington Bank Studio, here is your host, Jonathan Kirsting from the Pittsburgh Technology Council. Welcome to TechFive, this is Jonathan Kirsting, and we're today heading down on Route 51. to one of the coolest and maybe most under-the-radar technology companies in Pittsburgh. And I'm talking about Clark Testing. I recently toured Clark's Jefferson Hills facility, and I'm telling you, this place is an engineering playground on an industrial scale. We're talking massive sheet cable, size-nake testing, structural testing, massive pieces of equipment just being pushed to their limits. And our guest today is Paul Heffernan of Clark Testing. In fact, I interviewed Paul for my Amped Pittsburgh podcast after touring his facilities and I'm bringing you the best parts of it today. Clark works behind the scenes with companies across industries, including rail, defense, power generation, nuclear energy, and like I said, even space exploration. They're essentially an extension of their customers' R&D teams making sure products actually work when they reach the field. And when you listen today, you're going to hear Paul explain Clark's role testing equipment associated with NASA's Artemis rocket. Months of preparation for a test lasting just four seconds. So strap in or shaking things up today on Tech Vibe with Paul Heffernan. Let's jump into it right now. I was just at Clark testing, probably about a month or so ago, ran into one Paul Heffernan here, Paul. And when I went to your facilities, it just blew my mind what you guys are doing there and how you're doing things there that aren't being done any place else. Thank you, Jonathan. Anywhere nearby, right? It's exciting, isn't it? So I'm like, you got to be my first guest on AMP because these are the types of companies like yours that just make Pittsburgh magical. We hear this resource. People from around the world are coming here to see you and what you do, Paul. What do you do again? You got a half a day? I did. Well, we're pretty excited about it. The role we play regionally, nationally and internationally and helping companies innovate and bring products to market. So we do testing and validation. We support engineering companies, manufacturing companies, and support of the product development and product development cycles that they're doing. So we're sort of an extension of the research and development team at the... companies. You're like the fifth beetle of these places. You're like in the background, ready to go. Oh, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. So we, and what we try to do is we team with and collaborate with our customers. Because sometimes you have engineers that come in. They may have not been experienced in doing this testing before, or maybe they are trying to get a new product through the cycle to get it to market. Right. So we've been doing it and we've been testing for over 34 years now. That's amazing. Yeah, 19992 was our first acquisition. And when you say testing, you test everything in

I'm talking... massive things, small things, they need to be shaken, stirred. Whatever that may be, you can find out what kind of punishment that they can take before they're put into actual use. Right. Well, to your point, when we first met at our test laboratory in the South Hills here in Pittsburgh, we installed one of the largest shake tables in the eastern seaboard of the United States. And so we're excited about how that's going to help companies like in the rail industry, in the defense industry, power generation, and even space exploration. Because having that resource for the largest shake table in the U.S., we can simulate the vibration any of our customers see when they're putting their equipment in the field. That is just so important because you can have the best product or piece of machinery, but if it doesn't survive a harsh environment, then there's no point. And you can validate that way before it becomes too late. Obviously, this is probably one of the most crucial steps. A customer is very nervous probably when they step in your facilities because they're like, oh, God, let's make sure our engineering actually holds up, right? And the relief they have when they leave the lab and they're done, it's like, shoo. Absolutely. So the thing is, what we do is we simulate the environment. that their product is going to see once they get it to market. So they go, it begins with sort of a plan, then a prototype, then development, manufacturing the prototype, and then they come to us. And a lot of times they'll do some engineering, the finite element analysis, some modeling, and then they'll bring it to the actual lab to have it tested. And that's where we put it through the rigors of different test specifications. We deal with many different test standards like ASTM. which is the American Society of Test and Measurement. And then there's other standards, which are international IEC standards and mill standards as well. And we can basically support a variety of customers through various industries in all of those test specifications. It's amazing because I think about you, when you just mention some of the key industries that you work with, I mean, literally, I don't think there's an industry out there that hasn't come through your doors. I'm not just talking about local companies in Pittsburgh area. We're talking literally, and this is the thing that really, stuck with me when you were making this ribbon cutting of the giant shake table, was you're basically saying that literally people from around the world, you're talking, folks from Korea are driving down our humble little Route 51 to get to your testing facilities. I just think that's amazing because they're literally, they have to come to Pittsburgh to have this type of work done. Yeah, because we touch so many industries, and particularly say the nuclear power industry. Yes. And the legacy that we have as a former Westinghouse facility and we acquired it in 1992, we have carried that new nuclear power legacy all the way through. So we have this quality assurance program in place that we have continued over the years. And that enables us to qualify customers of equipment to go into a nuclear power plant. So the power plant shuts down in a calculated manner in the event that there's an earthquake or something that happens. So we have valve companies and actuator companies, the company's manufacturing electrical breakers and switches flying into, like you said,

Pittsburgh International, driving down the gauntlet of traffic lights on Route 51, and parking at our test campus in Jefferson Hills, formerly large Pennsylvania. Yeah. First off, I have a soft spot because I ride my bike through there all the time when I'm on the Montour Trail. And so many times I've rid my bike passing. I know you guys were testing stuff, but I said it really opened my eyes when I went there to actually see your facilities and also to see your team of people there. You have to have some of the most amazing employees. I mean, they're doing a tough job. I mean, they're rigging stuff up. I mean, they're like, you got, folks look like their mechanics that are being, but they're engineers. And there's just so much going on there. I can see the excitement because they're testing such a variety of different things. Right. And they know that the things that they're doing are really important. Like you said, you're qualifying things from nuclear level stuff. Right. You can't think of anything that has to have a more stringent set of standards. Right. Something like that. And it's happening in your shop, right? Yeah. I mean, for example, Jonathan, yesterday, I'm out in the laboratory, our seismic lab. Yeah. We have one of the three largest seismic in the United States. Yeah. So we can put really big stuff on it. So equipment, not only that goes into the nuclear industry, equipment that goes into a transmission and distribution or a substation, if you're driving by a substation, you see those big tall insulators that are made, either ceramic or rubber. Well, we just tested one yesterday. And you can imagine when you shake in the bottom, the top is really flopping back and forth. And I'm talking to the customer. He says, well, I think we have to go back to the drawing board. Well, we do that because we want to make sure that that electric is still generated and transmitted during an event, if there's a seismic event, that will continue to operate because it's gone through the rigors of a seismic test at our laboratory. Yeah. Oh my goodness. That's just... That's why I seriously, it's one of the things where I feel like we just cannot take it for granted that we're safe in this world because things are tested ahead of time. Right. It's done through facilities like yours. I'm going to go back again. Once again, this is my home base when I went to go visit you guys. Okay. We had this ribbon cutting with. Our friends Huntington actually were there because great supporter. I didn't realize it was a community effort for you guys to get this new shake table. Right. Which I thought was amazing because I wasn't expecting to see my friends from Huntington there. I'm like, what do you guys doing here? Like, oh, we helped with the financing to be able to procure. this, then you had the state leaders here, was Devlin was there. State Senator Devlin Robinson and a team of people from Allegheny Strategic Partners and that group and state senator and the state representative, Kuzma, and Huntington Bank. We put that coalition together and we're able to get state support and private support. And then we wound up realizing the dream of installing one of the most unique pieces of test equipment in the country. Exactly. And I think about when you have that piece of equipment, now, like how that's going to open up your business? Yeah, it does. And we also continue the business that we have. So we support, say, the rail industry. Yeah. And even the busing industry. So we have customers that, believe it or not, when you get on a rail car or a bus, it's air conditioned in a hot, hot day, right? Well, those big air conditioners that are on the top of the buses and trains, they won't fit on the average shake table, vibration table. And so if you think and see how the roads in Pittsburgh we talked about before and how Although the equipment is vibrating going back and forth, well, anything can fail in terms of a disconnection of a part or something to a circuit breaks or disconnects. We have the ability to sort of simulate and mimic that environment. And then when you're done with that, just put it on a bus again and drive down 51 a few times. Just to make sure the shake table did its job, right? There's plenty of potholes to do the real life simulation. Exactly. Because you got 51 there. I love that. You gave me a really cool story I think people need to know about is how you worked with the Artemis.

Yes, yeah. That was amazing to me. Tell me about the testing you did with that, because that just goes to show you, you guys can test anything. In addition to vibration testing, we do structural testing, load testing, and fatigue testing. So we've done everything from the arm that is the umbilical to the rocket. And so what we did was we simulated that umbilical arm that basically is bringing the power generation and the oxygen and all of the gases to the rocket. lifeline for it. Pre-launch, right? And then once it launches, the fuel cells kick in and power it. But pre-launch, what we're doing is we're powering the rocket as it's getting prepped. And so when that rocket... gets ready to go, that arm, that umbilical arm has to slam shut in four seconds. And so what we do is we set up a mock-up of the tower. Okay. Set up a mock-up of the rocket. A customer brought the umbilical arm in. And then what we did was we had everything connected in terms of the, all of the gases, electrical connections. And then what happens is there's explosion bolts, blow it, and then it slammed shut. And basically, that's how a successful test in the umbilical arm happens. I mean, you mentioned something to me that that was so interesting, was it was like months of preparation for basically a four-second test, right? Correct, yeah. Tell me about that. And they did it multiple times. Of course, yes. And building a three-story simulated tower, launch tower. Wait, so you have a 30... foot yeah 30 foot steel structure we didn't build the building right we didn't build the rocket what we did was we we built the steel structure that would simulate where the launch arm was bolted to and then the rocket we had sort of a curvature of a right you get the exact that would be of the aramis rocket and then what we did was we basically did the launch arm simulation we did two models we did i think there was a four foot and then a seven-foot model that were different. And then we had to do a couple of simulations. So we did several slam shots of models. Yeah. So first off, like, I think to myself, how the astronaut safety was in your hands there. If that thing doesn't pull away properly, that could mess the launch up. I mean, I don't know the specifics, but I'm feeling like, before that thing can fit this, it's got to make sure there's nothing still stuck to it. So I think that's, it goes to show you just how important. your testing is. Well, it's important, and it's extremely important that, like you alluded to earlier, we have qualified quality people. And then the other important part, Jonathan, is our relationship with our customer. So we are partners as we are going through these sophisticated test programs. And our collaboration that's happening is every step of the way, what we start off with is a test plan. And so we either collaborate with the customer or we build a test plan or they may have the test plan. And then when the The test plan is reviewed by our test team, our test engineers, and then we show it to the customer. We, at that point, both sign off on the test plan and then begin the test program. And then they see every step of the way we stop. We have a very strict quality assurance program. I can only imagine. I mean, I can only imagine because, like, once again, people's lives are in your hand. Right. And that, to me, it's like, you've got to be...

Yeah. Simple as that. And I tell our team, I said, look, we're testing things that are going on to nuclear-powered submarines, aircraft carriers, ships, rail cars. Is there anything you don't test? No, we don't do a lot of testing for residential furniture and stuff like that. It's mostly large industrial stuff. You're not shaking couches to pieces? No, we're not. Just the important stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That means is absolutely amazing. And I'm going to go back to home base again when I was at my visit there. All the memories are coming back. Yeah. had a fantastic time there. It was fun because I just loved seeing stuff. being made being tested me i just get so excited about that which is why we're doing this series right with huntington bank is because this is what makes our region tick and i see the people that are working there and go back to your people i've never seen a more dedicated group of folks that were out there right and as we're getting the tours like you could just see the passion yeah so what's it like when working at clark and i know that you guys are probably always looking for talent and stuff like as well to give me a little more insight on well we we really focus on culture and so we really work hard making sure show people have a work-life balance. It's a family company. You met my son, he's the president of the company, does an unbelievable job, educated at Pitt and Carnegie Mellon. And so we are excited about the fact that at one point in time they were talking about demolishing the building we're in and putting a hotel there. Really? But today, we have about 75 engineers, test technicians, lab research analysts, and administrators and salespeople are continuing to hire. And so we have basically taken this opportunity to have this infrastructure that's in place, and we have done our best to leverage it. And about what we have to do is you could have, I tell people you could have All of the equipment in the world, test equipment in the world, the most important part of that test equipment are the people behind it. 100%. And so that quality assurance program, they need to ensure that the data we provide our customer is quality data. And how we do that is a series of our quality program, our calibration. Everything is traceable to NIST, which is the National Institute of Standards and Testing. Doesn't get any better than that. No. Any more official than that. Right. And so we welcome quality audits from our customers and from the independent auditing agencies that we qualify to. We welcome those audits because it makes us better. And the fortunate thing is our employees and our team know how important that is. And so safety and quality are the pillars of our company. 100%. One thing that was really surprised to learn about when I was there, you were giving me a tour, was he took me upstairs into the room where you do all this testing for oil and things like that. Like, I had no idea about this. And I'm a total car nerd. I know my SEs. I know my 020s and all that kind of fun stuff. Tell me about some of the services you do in that area. Well, the lubrication laboratory,

that we have. We do, we test used lubricants and new lubricants. Clark testing is the number one laboratory that works with ASTM. They have selected us for over 20 years. Really? Almost 25 years we've been doing this program. And what we do is we calibrate labs throughout the world. So we do what they call a round robin or proficiency testing. And we get bulk materials and bulk samples in from large production companies. And you name Marathon, Exxon, Chevron. All those companies are sending us sample product. And that sample product could be anything. Hydraulic fluid, diesel fuel, engine oil, gasoline, and jet fuel. Anything. A little bit everything kind of coming in. We get hundreds of drums in. And what we do is we've got tanks, 4,000, 5,000 gallon tanks. We blend it. And then what we do is we test it. Send our test results to ASTM. And then we bottle it in either one liter or one gallon bottles and virtually send it all over the world. So they can test against that to make sure that they got the good stuff. So that laboratory in India. or Indiana, is sending their data to ASTM. And ASTM is saying, okay, you're meeting the standard. You are within the ASTM standard. Once again, you're putting Pittsburgh in the center of the world, right? Well, thank you for saying it. So that is the kind of company I love to discover and bring to you right here on TechVib. Clark testing might operate behind the scenes, but its fingerprints are on technologies traveling everywhere. We're talking railways, powering up our infrastructure, serving our military, and I keep saying it heading towards space. I don't know, this combination of technology and talent, it just makes me super proud here in Pittsburgh. It goes to show you we build and test crazy cool stuff here. So a big thanks to Paul and the entire team at Clark for letting me hang out for an afternoon. And once again, this is Jonathan Kirsting with the Pittsburgh Technology Council, good at pghtech.org, and find out all the ways we love helping tech companies succeed. And I hope you have an awesome Sunday, everybody.

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