Photo by Joselyn King Ryan Lee, left, and Grant Kudrap, employees at Touchstone Advanced Composites, put the finishing touches on an airplane part fabricated at the facility.

TRIADELPHIA — A Triadelphia-based company is putting its product in the next generation of military aircraft. The path from Middle Creek Road to military application has taken a lot of teamwork here in Ohio County, with employees from different manufacturing backgrounds coming together to produce a next-level material.

Touchstone Advanced Composites, the maker of the innovative CFOAM technology, is now working with Northrup Grumman, a global aerospace and technology company, to craft molds for the YFQ-48A Talon Blue Collaborative Combat Aircraft. The Talon Blue is an unmanned aircraft that is cost-effective and can be deployed rapidly, serving as a “loyal wingman” to manned aircraft like the F-35 and Next Generation Air Dominance jets.

The lightweight CFOAM, made from bituminous coal, also will be used as a building material for some components, explained J.W. Freeland, director of business development for the company.

“We are making molds. The industry calls them ‘tools,'” he said. “These are for composite parts for aerospace. Composite parts are comprised of carbon fiber and a resin. They are chosen over metallic parts because they are very lightweight and very strong.”

According to the CFOAM website it’s 22 times lighter than copper and seven times lighter than aluminum.

“When you are looking to make high-performance aircraft, obviously those are desired attributes,” Freeland added.

Freeland said using CFOAM to craft molds was not the original intent when the material was invented 25 years ago.

“Then we realized we need to start making things with CFOAM and demonstrate the properties. Then we could sell it,” he continued. “But as we progressed, we got better and better at making the molds, so now we have a whole separate mold-making business.”

Freeland said Touchstone Advanced Composites, part of the Innovations business unit of Core Natural Resources, now does business with “prime defense contractors.” Parts manufactured are used on wings and elsewhere throughout aircraft.

A cutting-edge product like CFOAM has brought experts from various backgrounds together to create it – from the coal industry to the steel industry and more. Employee Brian Clary works as a metrologist, ensuring airplane parts are produced to exact customer specifications.

Clary cuts parts and ensures all angles, holes and other measurements are precise. Computer software and laser-tracking technology are used in the process. One smaller part required more than 1,200 individual measurements using the technology.

Clary’s background was decades in the steel industry.

“I worked 26 years in the steel industry, repairing equipment for steel mills,” Clary said. “But nothing can prepare you for this.

“Would you guess anything like this was being done around here?” he continued. “I guess it’s something that you have to learn as you go along.”

Josh King operates the CNC laser cutter, using computer programming to shape parts according to engineering designs.

“I’ve only been here a year, and I learned from another guy,” he said. “He taught me, and I guess I picked up pretty quickly. But I’ve been a machinist for 25 years this November.”

Megan Bishop works as a composite technician at Touchstone Advanced Composites. She lays out composite parts on a CFOAM mold. The fact that CFOAM is made from coal hearkens back to Bishop’s previous occupation.

“I was a coal miner for many years,” Bishop said. “To see the future of coal and aviation, to see it in this area and be able to be doing this … it’s pretty neat to me.

“I’ve moved around to different careers to figure out where I fit in. I went from the coal industry to the steel industry, and I ended up here. It’s awesome.”

Bishop said workers at the company continue learning specialized skills on the job.

“You have to be willing to learn how to do this because it is a very specific skill,” Bishop said. “Having a lot of skills — chemical operator, experience underground and the skilled trades — I believe you can utilize and transfer a lot of these skills into stuff.

“We help each other and work together as a collaborative team. We meet these orders and specifications for customer needs. I’m learning new things every day,” she added.