History of Clark Testing

The origin of Clark Testing began with Saul Siegel and his son-in-law, Paul Heffernan acquiring their first test laboratory in 1992 with an acquisition from Westinghouse Electric Corp. The acquisition included segments of Westinghouse's Astro Nuclear Division purchased on February 7, 1992. The facility located in Large, PA was known as Astro Nuclear/Dynamics Inc., (ANDI). At that time, ANDI had two divisions that included nuclear manufacturing with an ASME "N" and "NPT" Stamp, and the testing division that provided seismic, vibration, shock and environmental testing services to many Fortune 500 companies.

With the commercial nuclear power industry experiencing successive years of negative growth, Astro Nuclear divested itself of the nuclear manufacturing business and focused on its testing services. At this time, Astro Nuclear changed its name to ANDI Test Lab. The ANDI Lab continued to leverage its unique testing capabilities in support of the nuclear power, electrical transmission/distribution, transportation, power generation and military/defense industries.

The next milestone in Clark's history occurred in 1996 with the acquisition of the Clark Engineering Service’s mechanical test laboratory from Ingersol-Rand. This lab was a division of Clark Equipment Company in Buchanan, Michigan which was widely known as the qualification test division for the heavy equipment manufacturing facility and is the origin of the Clark Testing name. After the acquisition, the lab’s name was changed from Clark Engineering Services, LLC to its current name of Clark Testing Services LLC in 2007. Clark’s Buchanan facility has diverse testing capabilities including structural, fatigue, load, stress and mechanical durability testing. Clark Testing provides mechanical testing services to a number of industries including; heavy off-road construction, transportation, power generation, military and automotive.

In December of 2003, the acquisition team of Siegel & Heffernan acquired the UEC Lab from US Steel Corporation which was located in Monroeville, PA. The newly acquired lab was named Clark Laboratories, LLC. The Clark Labs’ capability includes; Coal/Coke, Fuel, Lubricant, Chemistry and Industrial Hygiene testing. Clark Lab's coal & coke division provides sample retrieving, testing, auditing and coal quality verification services. Clark provides both raw coal analysis and governing analysis for its customers.

The ownership team continued its growth mode in January of 2005 when they purchased the former Westinghouse Nuclear Research Center in Jefferson Hills, PA from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. They renamed the facility JTC Real Estate Holdings, LLC which became the corporate headquarters for the testing services operations. In this same year, ANDI Test Lab changed its name to Clark Dynamic Test Laboratory, Inc. After the acquisition, the 250,000 square foot facility underwent a major restoration with all of the buildings being completely renovated. In March of 2006, Clark Labs relocated to the JTC Real Estate facility to optimize the real estate investment and synergize the Pittsburgh operations in one location. Today, Clark Labs, Clark Dynamics and the Clark Corporate Headquarters all operate out of the same location in Jefferson Hills, (formerly Large, PA.).

The Clark Labs' Coal & Coke division continued to expand requiring Clark to relocate to a larger facility in Bluefield, West Virginia. In in the fall of 2009 Clark opened three satellite labs in West Virginia at Coal Mountain, Keystone and Red Fox as a result of a contract with a major Russian Carbon Company. Also in the fall of 2009, an additional location was opened in Dupo, IL that performs coal & coke testing for a major coke supplier to US Steel. Based on a strategic management initiative, Clark recently opened a new coal & coke test laboratory in Princeton West Virginia in the fall of 2011. This new facility is not only the headquarters for Clark's coal and coke division, but it also enables Clark to provide its customers with their high standards of testing services in synch within their required turnaround times.

In 2009, Heffernan became the controlling member and President of the Clark operation and began an initiative to invest in the laboratories and synergize the Clark operations. After recapitalizing the group during one of the most challenging economic climates in decades, Mr. Heffernan lead the company through a period of unprecedented growth. Subsequently, in February of 2012 the Heffernan family purchased the remaining equity portion of the Clark operations and now owns 100% interest in the entire organization. In the summer of 2012, JTC Real Estate Holdings, LLC in Jefferson Hills, PA will have a name change and will be known as "The Clark Testing Center". Today, Clark Testing is a service organization that provides testing, engineering and qualification services to a large majority of Fortune 100 manufacturing companies throughout the United States.