President’s Message – October 1, 2013

October 1, 2013

I hope this letter finds you healthy and energized after a summer full of memorable activities!

As we enter the fourth quarter of 2013, our thoughts naturally turn to our strategic direction. Test Devices will be focusing on four key initiatives between now and the year 2020 that will make us a healthier, more competitive and more profitable company. Our goal is to evolve into a test center that offers our customers the types of testing they need (static as well as dynamic) with the utmost data integrity at a reasonable cost. The initiatives that follow are customer-centered and focus heavily on improved efficiencies and enhanced product offerings.

#1 – Drive expenses down through continual process improvement and enhancement of core products and services.

Simply said – we need to deliver more value for the same or less cost by:

• Increasing process efficiencies through continual improvement, which will drive costs down while delivering more value
• Reducing the Mean Time Between Repair (MTBR) of our core systems; the result will be better schedule performance, lower costs, higher quality services and equipment

#2 – Build adequate capacity to accommodate expected growth in our testing business. This includes:

• Increase footprint to enable improved process flow and assure on-time delivery
• Add equipment to increase capacity, broaden our testing capabilities, reduce time to test, and improve data accuracy
• Increase key technical staff to better support their requirements and increase capacity

<h2″>#3 – Evolve our core capabilities, equipment and methods to better suit more challenging test requirements.

<p”>The advancement of gas turbine materials, especially for the hot section, is driving the need for new test methods. Our enhancements will focus on:

• Steeper thermal gradient testing at extreme temperatures and for long durations
• Methods to test EBCs, blade rotor interfaces, tip behavior, and the effects of gas species
• HCF methods suitable to higher heat and higher order modes
• More powerful electric drive systems to increase HCF strain amplitudes and reduce cycle times
• Increased spin rig diameters to better suit aviation fans and larger IGT components

#4 – Enhance our support and service offerings with a broader focus on customer success.

• Implement improved software version control to stabilize user interfaces and data acquisition
• Standardized equipment support (hardware and software) to maximize equipment functionality
• Provide engineering services to assist with tooling design/fab, analysis and training
• Offer key equipment module upgrades to improve functionality and supportability

I request and encourage your input and feedback as we continually develop our strategies and initiatives.