Allegheny Technologies - History

History

Allegheny Technologies has a long history in Pittsburgh dating back to the Revolutionary War when an ancestor called Pompton Furnace supplied cannon balls to the Continental Army and hand-forged chain links to block the Hudson River. Its progenitor, Allegheny Ludlum Corporation, was created with a merger in 1939, of Allegheny Steel of Pittsburgh and Ludlum Steel of Watervliet, New York. In 1927, their steel was chosen for New York’s Chrysler Building and the next year it was specified for the Empire State Building. In 1929, Ford began using Allegheny Metal for the bright trim parts of the Model A. Allegheny Ludlum also cooperated with Ford in the 1930s, 1960s, and 1970s to build several one-off promotional cars with stainless steel bodies. Three such cars are on display in the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum.

In 1987, Allegheny Ludlum had its first public offering, but the present version of the company, Allegheny Technologies, was formed by the combination of Allegheny Ludlum Corporation and Teledyne, Inc. on August 15, 1996. The company has since spun off several subsidiaries as independent public companies such as Teledyne Technologies, Inc. and WaterPik Technologies in 1999, to concentrate on its core business of metal and alloy production. It also sold its World Minerals subsidiary to French company Imerys in 2005. ATI has had a consistent history of strategic acquisitions, notably Wallingford Steel in 1935, West Leechburg Steel in 1936, Jessop Steel in 1994, the assets of Lukens Washington Steel in 1998, J&L Specialty Steel in 2004, and most recently Wisconsin-based Ladish Co. to expand its offerings in the aerospace sector. The company has self-funded approximately $1.8 billion in capital investments between 2004 and 2009 and now believes it has world's newest and most advanced processing paths for its specialty metals, particularly for titanium and titanium alloys, nickel-based alloys and superalloys, zirconium and hafnium, and other specialty alloys.