Laboratory Testing Celebrates 25th Anniversary

Laboratory Testing (LTI) of Hatfield, PA is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2009, a major milestone for the materials testing, nondestructive testing and calibration services laboratory. The company was started with 20 employees in 1984 by Robert W. McVaugh, Sr. During the previous eight years, McVaugh and a business partner ran Carson NDT, the nondestructive testing division of Carson Helicopter. In 1984, McVaugh acquired his partner’s share of the NDT division and spun off the business into an independent company, Laboratory Testing, in Dublin, PA. Today, LTI remains a family-run business and is owned by three of McVaugh’s four children.

LTI initially provided commercial nondestructive testing services, including magnetic particle, liquid penetrant, X-ray and ultrasonic inspection services. Within a few years, the list of services grew to include hydrostatic pressure testing, materials testing services, machining of test specimens, dimensional inspection and calibration services. The testing laboratory also earned accreditations in materials and nondestructive testing from the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) and the Performance Review Institute’s National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (NADCAP) before its tenth anniversary.

By the time McVaugh’s children began running Laboratory Testing in 1994, the company’s Dublin, PA facility was at maximum capacity. They leased additional space in an adjoining building to hold Laboratory Testing over for the next few years. Under the second-generation owners, many of the product lines were expanded, failure analysis and materials engineering services were added, equipment was upgraded and the entire lab was computerized and networked for maximum efficiency.

Within a few years, Laboratory Testing had outgrown its building and the additional leased space, so the owners purchased a 45,000 sq. ft. building with a shop and office space in nearby Hatfield, PA. A 9,000 sq. ft second-floor addition was immediately constructed on one end of the building before moving the staff and equipment from the Dublin location.

LTI has focused on improving technology, expanding capabilities, streamlining operations and enhancing customer service and information, since the move to the new building in early 2000. Within the last few years, LTI has added a 2nd shift in most departments to keep pace with increasing orders, a growing number of large-volume orders, and many requests for rush service to meet customer turnaround requirements. Another expansion was completed in the spring of 2008, which provided a 12,000 sq. ft. building addition and an additional 65-space parking lot to meet the need for additional capacity. Today the lab employs over 115 technicians, engineers, chemists, machinists and support staff, and services nearly 5000 customers throughout the world with materials testing, nondestructive testing, failure analysis, specimen machining, dimensional inspection and calibration services.