'Incredible journey' for CTC: Johnstown-based company evolves to find solutions for military, national security
Russ O Reilly, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
5 min read
Sep. 24—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — When the United States military has questions, it has continuously turned to an organization in Johnstown for answers.
—"How can aircraft fuel consumption be optimized to allow our Air Force to perform faster and at lower costs?"
—"How can the energy grid at a military base become more efficient, environmentally conscious, and dependable at the same time?"
For 35 years, Concurrent Technologies Corp. has been providing solutions for problems in Information Technology, U.S. military mission assurance, advanced manufacturing and material science.
The independent nonprofit at 100 CTC Drive in Richland Township has grown from solely providing applied scientific research and development to offering full research, development, test and evaluation work.
The company celebrated 35 years of operation in August.
Soon after it was established in 1987 — first as Metalworking Technology Inc. — the company began attracting talent back to the Johnstown area.
'The mission'
George Appley, an East Taylor Township native and 1987 University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown graduate, took his computer science degree to California — but returned to work for Metalworking Technology Inc. Today, he is CTC's executive vice president and chief operations officer.
"The anniversary, means an incredible journey for me personally, I got to do almost every job we have here — I've been here 32 years now," Appley said. "But more important is the importance of the mission of CTC and impact on national security and critical jobs for the government and other companies."
Similarly, Ed Sheehan was born in Johnstown but his family moved to the Washington, D.C., area when he was a child. Sheehan returned to Johnstown in the early 1990s, and began working for CTC in 1993. He has been the company's chief executive officer since 2009.
The growth of CTC, as well as the defense industry in Johnstown as a whole, is inseparable from the influence of the late U.S. Rep. John Murtha, a senior congressman and House of Representatives' defense appropriations subcommittee chairman, Sheehan said.
"I've been at CTC for almost 30 years, and the original organization that had been established was really through the efforts of Congressman Murtha," Sheehan said.
"Murtha knew that the Navy wanted to bring innovation and help improve ship building for the benefit of national security and the ship building industry, and he felt like Johnstown had a great deal of capability between our heritage of steelmaking and the people — the metallurgists who participated in that industry, which was on a decline at the time."
Murtha reached out to the University of Pittsburgh and asked leaders there to create a nonprofit applied research and development company that could perform the work that the Navy required while taking advantage of the talent that was in Johnstown.
Under leadership of its board of directors, and with the work of 400 employees across the nation and 800,000 square feet of facility space in Richland Township, CTC continues to find solutions to modern problems confronting national security, Sheehan said.
Air Force project
This week, the company announced a $5.2 million contract to help build a large 3D printer with a bed for making powdered metal parts for the U.S. Air Force.
The printer is planned to produce parts from powdered metal that are almost two feet high, two feet wide and five feet in volume.
"It's the largest additive manufacturing powdered metal bed system," Sheehan said, "and it can make the largest parts, to this point, from powdered metal."
He said the project is related to emerging opportunities in hypersonic weapons — maneuvering weapons that fly at speeds of at least Mach 5.
With the printer, the Air Force will be able produce complex parts for machines that previously would have been extremely expensive or impossible to make, Sheehan said.
The news excited Johnstown leaders, including Amy Bradley, Cambria Regional Chamber of Commerce president.
"I think that's amazing," Bradley said. "Companies like CTC are doing things in Johnstown that are remarkable, and I think people don't realize all of the cool things that are taking place at companies like CTC right here at home.
"I'm glad that they are here, I'm glad they've been so successful and I hope and expect it will continue."
From research and development to full-scale production, CTC generate technological solutions such as the Air Force's desired 3D printer.
The organization's ability to see a project through all stages is what separates CTC from its competitors in the marketplace, Sheehan said.
"In the early years of the organization, we were principally focused only on applied research and development, and that was because of the nature of some of the work we were funded to do," he said. "But what has happened over the course of time is basically we have the ability now to perform the conceptual design, the development, the prototyping, and then the manufacturing and sustainment of some of those products.
"So we can now do the 'full life cycle' spectrum of support from concept through eventually sunsetting products and moving onto the next generation of development."
Sheehan said in the future of CTC, he sees the company making innovative contributions in areas such as energy resiliency, advanced manufacturing and cyber security.
As a mid-sized company, CTC faces a lot of pressure from both bigger and smaller competitors, Sheehan said.
"The government today is setting aside contracts for small businesses that CTC used to be able to bid on ... And, in some cases we are competing against the world's largest companies.
"A lot of times we win, but it requires us to be more cost competitive and innovative. Our people continue to rise to the challenge."
Sheehan praised the employees across the organization's system.
"In terms of being the CEO of this organization, and leading it for the past 14 years, I think about the passion that our people bring," he said. "For me, it's really the opportunity to work with such outstanding people, and responding to the needs of our war fighters and national security.
"That is very rewarding — knowing that our company is contributing to our national security profile and we are able to do so because of our outstanding people."
