Dr. Andres Lebaudy and Mr. Gary Cane founded
Fairmount Automation in 1996. They began work on our first general-purpose
product, the FAC-2000, with the emphasis on providing a rugged multi-loop
process controller. The main thrust for this effort was to satisfy a need for a
versatile controller for automation on combat vessels in the U.S. Navy. In 1997,
the company submitted a fully functional prototype of the FAC-2000 to the U.S.
Navy to undergo a battery of MIL-SPEC (military specification) tests. Upon
passing all the requisite military tests and gaining approval for shipboard use,
the Department of Defense awarded Fairmount Automation with a number of
contracts to deliver FAC-2000 controllers.
Engineers from the Naval Surface Warfare
Center's Propulsion and Steam Machinery Controls Division used the FAC-2000
controllers to successfully overhaul a vast array of navy shipboard applications
including: waste heat boilers on Spruance Class Destroyers, distilling plants on
Ticonderoga Class Guided Missiles Cruisers, secondary steam machinery controls
in the nuclear propulsion plants on Nimitz Class Aircraft Carriers, and
propulsion boiler controls on Kennedy and Kitty Hawk Class Aircraft Carriers,
Sacramento Class Combat Support ships, and Tarawa and Wasp Class Amphibious
Attack ships.
Since 1998 engineering teams from the U.S.
Navy, its major shipbuilders, and other contractors have been duplicating and
refining these initial installations throughout the U.S. Navy Fleet. These teams
have also developed new shipboard applications for our equipment. For example,
they recently used FAC-2000 units to control the catapults that launch aircraft
from the USS Truman. In addition, Navy engineers recently returned to the USS
Kennedy and USS George Washington to outfit the ships with additional FAC-2000
controllers for use in the tank level indication system on their collection,
holding, and transfer systems.
Today our products are controlling
mission-critical processes on more than 25% of the surface ships in the U.S.
Navy Fleet. Our installation base is growing rapidly, both in terms of the
number of ships that rely on our products and the number of units that are
utilized on each ship. We continue to work closely with automation engineers
from the Navy and private sector firms to identify additional shipboard
applications for our controllers.
Mission
Fairmount Automation's mission is to become the
leading provider of survivable process control and automation products for harsh
environments. We aim to be the dominant automation equipment OEM for military
applications and to consistently gain market share in the worldwide industrial
controls market. We intend to follow a path of financially responsible growth
that delivers steadily increasing profits and maximizes shareholder value. We
will achieve these goals by delivering technologically superior products that
minimize our end-user's overall ownership costs and by fostering a work
environment that rewards innovation, hard work, and entrepreneurship.
