30 Years of Growth
Steady growth characterized the late 1970s and 1980s as the number of both contracts and employees continued to increase, including the hiring of Larry Lee, who later served as president of the company from April 1999 to June 2005. Ktech supported projects onsite at SNL and at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory (now the Air Force Research Laboratory) and expanded our facilities, adding a machine shop to produce our own gauges and sensors, along with machining prototype hardware for our engineering projects.
Workshop on the Technology of Ferroelectric Polymers,
1985. Hosted by Ktech in Albuquerque, NM. |
The staff grew by nearly 20 employees in 1979 when Ktech won a contract to operate, maintain, and design experiments for SNL’s Pulsed Power Research Center, staffed by world-class plasma physics and engineering personnel and utilizing state-of-the-art accelerators. In support of the Pulsed Power Research Center, we strengthened our capabilities in high speed data acquisition, software engineering, and systems development and integration. Our staff made major contributions to the Center and later supported other pulsed power projects, including development and installation of systems for the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.
By the 1980s, Ktech was well known for our expertise in the areas of dynamic mechanical and thermal material behavior, reactor safety, shock physics, particle-beam fusion, weapons effects, instrumentation development, high-temperature liquid/solid interactions, and data analysis. Ktech personnel made major contributions to the construction, operation and maintenance of virtually all accelerator facilities located at SNL.
In 1988, Ktech reinforced our commitment to our employees by becoming an employee-owned company. Today, 100% of the company is owned by its employees.
