About

Welcome to Columbia Research Labs

Columbia Research Laboratories manufactures a broad variety of sensors and associated signal conditioning electronics that include force balance inertial-grade accelerometers and inclinometers, piezoelectric vibration and pressure sensors, strain gage aircraft mainframe fatigue sensors, precision linear variable differential transducers, and fiber optic sensors.

Columbia is dedicated to providing the most reliable sensors and systems for the military, commercial and industrial markets. We accomplish this by maintaining our focus on the performance demands of our market, by prioritizing quality monitoring and control throughout the manufacturing process, and by striving to exceed our customers' expectations for service and support.

Throughout the years Columbia has remained a customer-driven organization. Our philosophy of responding to the specific needs of our customers for performance, cost, size and timely delivery has resulted in a competitive advantage that has enabled long-term sustained success. Columbia strives to limit our dependence on outside subcontractors by building and expanding in-house capabilities. This philosophy has allowed Columbia to respond to our customers' product development and production modification needs with substantially less impact to lead time schedules and associated costs than our competition.

Every year since 1957, Columbia transducers and systems have been flight-qualified and performance proven on major United States Government military programs, in-flight missile systems and/or interplanetary manned and unmanned space vehicles. Columbia transducers and systems have been subjected to the most technically demanding in-flight qualification test requirements for performance and reliability under some of the most severe environmental conditions. In addition, Columbia transducers are used extensively in industrial control and monitoring systems, where rugged construction, low OEM cost and long accurate performance life are the criteria.

Columbia has participated in many military programs over the years. We have concentrated our efforts on supplying sensors for military aircraft and missile systems as well as commercial applications with demanding environments. One of our most prestigious endeavors was the design and production of gold-plated airborne vibration systems utilized on every lunar excursion module of the Apollo Program. We have supplied operational sensors utilized to measure vibration, acceleration, temperature and strain on a long list of military aircraft including the A-10, AV-8, B-52, F-16, F-18 and F-117.

We have supplied acceleration, vibration and tilt sensors on many of our country's most sophisticated military missile systems including the Mark 12, Mark 21, GBU-15, AGM-130, AMRAM, Hellfire, ALCM, SLCM, Trident I & II, ASROC, Pershing II, MX and SICBM. Additionally, we supply operational sensors for many satellite launch vehicles including the ATLAS II. We plan to continue to add to this list of programs as Columbia continues beyond our first 50 years.

Woman-Owned Small Business

Columbia Research Laboratories is a privately held woman-owned small business located in Woodlyn, Pennsylvania, just minutes away from the Philadelphia Airport. We presently house 20,000 square feet of modern clerical, management and engineering offices, product development and environmental test laboratories, and efficient production hardware manufacturing and test centers.

Our 2,000 square foot environmental test lab houses two computer controlled centrifuges utilized for setup and final calibration of our Linear Servo product line. The systems are capable of generating static accelerations up to 200 G's. In addition, another dual centrifuge system gives Columbia the unique ability to generate a dynamic +/- G modulation of a specimen while being subjected to a constant static acceleration. Another unique centrifuge at Columbia's facility provides static acceleration at temperature. This system has successfully accelerated sensors to over 600 G at temperature. A 1,500 square foot clean room is utilized for assembly of our precision torque mechanisms.

Columbia's piezoelectric product test laboratory incorporates three calibration-grade vibration shaker systems with two additional smaller temperature/vibration measurement systems. This facility offers both Hopkinson Bar and Avco Drop Test Shock Generation Test Stands with digital computing oscilloscope displays. Production accelerometer insert level cross axis measurements are conducted on our 360 degrees variable rotation 10 Hz slide table cross axis test stand. Design qualification base strain performance measurements can be made with a shaker-driven beam test configuration.

The first floor of our facility houses Alibert Industries, a fully-equipped 4,000 square foot machine shop which incorporates the latest in CNC milling and machining equipment. Alibert Industries subcontracts exclusively to Columbia Research on a 100% basis to meet our product development and production metal fabrication needs.

Highly skilled, goal-oriented team of employees

Columbia's most valuable asset is our team of talented and loyal employees. Columbia presently employs 50 highly skilled individuals. We are very proud of the fact that the average term of service of key management, engineering and manufacturing personnel exceeds 20 years. These key individuals have in many ways educated themselves in each of the other's area of expertise. This history of shared team responsibilities and broad experience base has proven itself as an effective organization capable of achieving program goals in budget and on schedule. Our customers can remain comfortable with the fact that their programs will not be limited or delayed by the transition or rotation of new personnel in or out of their design team.

As a small company Columbia's progress is not hindered by a large bureaucracy. Instead Columbia management has fostered a sense of community in the workplace that encourages and supports innovation in developing and improving products and driving manufacturing efficiencies.

Product Quality Policy

Our policy at Columbia Research Laboratories is to manufacture and deliver quality products that meet and earn customer satisfaction through reliability, good performance, competitive prices, and in accordance with contractual requirements. To this end, the objective of Columbia's Quality Assurance Department is to make certain that all products furnished to our customers conform to the quality standards specified by the customer in conjunction with Columbia Research Labs and also conform to specified quality standards. These objectives are accomplished by means of a Quality Assurance Program, which is integrated and coordinated with other company functions and results in a total management system. Quality guidelines and procedures are outlined in our Quality Control Manual.

Columbia is currently a ISO 9001:2015 w/ Design and AS9100:2016 Certified Company that is registered in the Oasis Database. This certification was obtained by adapting our long standing Quality Standards of MIL-Q-9858, MIL-I-45208, MIL-STD-45662, and ANSI Z5 into the ISO standard.

Columbia's products have a long history of superior quality and proven reliability. While many of our competitors have discontinued their participation in this market, Columbia remains focused on our market and our mission so that our customers can remain confident that they have selected a well-established, dependable supplier well into the future!