THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Monday, May 15, 1995 TAG: 9505130191 SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL COLUMN: SMALL BUSINESS SOURCE: By MYLENE MANGALINDAN, BUSINESS WEEKLY LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Consolidated Launcher Technology exemplifies how defense conversion should work. The Chesapeake-based submarine repair and technology company has moved into the commercial sector to apply its knowledge to a high-speed rail system.
CLT, which was incorporated in 1985, was honored for its work and success last week with a Small Business of the Year Quality Award from the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
Established to work on Navy submarines torpedo launching systems, CLT started working on a prototype of the ``Friendly Mobile Barrier'' for the high-speed rail system.
This joint public and privately funded $700,000 project will prevent vehicles weighing up to 35 tons from hitting the high-speed rail.
The company's first crash test met or exceeded the standards set up under the Federal Railroad Administration's grant. CLT crashed a 4,500 pound truck at 45 miles per hour against its barrier.
Necessity provided the impetus for CLT's entrance into the private sector.
``Navy work has been cyclical,'' said vice president R. Wayne Bromwell. ``One thing we think the commercial work will do is level out that cyclical world.''
The company's executives credit the Center for Innovative Technology for helping them apply their defense-oriented technology and expertise to commercial areas.
President Charles W. Coker expects revenues, currently more than $2 million, to exceed $25 million potentially when the high-speed rail takes off.
CLT has now turned its know-how with hydraulics, air systems and pneumatics toward other industries, specifically work spaces that are self-contained.
It began working with some paper and pulp mills to make them more efficient, Coker said.
``What we can give them is superior quality for not much in price,'' Bromwell said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by BETH BERGMAN
Left front, CLT owner Diana Bromwell; CEO Dan Lynch; owner Charles
Coker; back, owner Wayne Bromwell, left, and operations director
William S. Russell.
KEYWORDS: AWARD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE by CNB