Shaun Horning, President and CEO of Gastops Ltd. Gastops employs over 200 personnel in Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland
By Tamara Condie
SHAUN HORNING, PRESIDENT and CEO of Gastops Ltd., began his 30-year journey at the company in 1992 with nothing more than a foot in the door as a co-op student. He joined the Gastops team only 13 years after its inception — Horning and the company have spent more than half of their lifespan together evolving and growing while setting out to develop a portfolio of products to expand state-of-the-art condition monitoring.
“It is truly a remarkable Canadian success story that is still being written as there is so much opportunity for growth ahead of us,” says Horning.
Horning’s introduction to Gastops aligns well with the company’s mantra, which is to build a stable, diverse, and employee-centric company that leverages Canadian expertise to provide rewarding career opportunities while giving back to the community. Horning’s own engineering professor at Carleton University, gas turbine aficionado Herb Saravanamuttoo, saw potential in him as a promising young engineer, which fueled the beginning of Horning’s career with Gastops.
“I found a company filled with people interested in solving challenging problems for customers, making something work better, learning something new, helping the community and having fun along the way. What more could a young engineer ask for?” says Horning.
Time flies when you’re having fun, and just like Horning’s career, Gastops’ capacity has skyrocketed since he began his tenure there — today, the manufacturing company employs 200-plus Canadians in Ottawa, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.
In its early days, the company primarily functioned as an engineering services company, but its dedication to cutting-edge innovation transformed Gastops into a multifaceted condition monitoring company working with aerospace, wind turbine and industrial power technology.
Headquartered in the nation’s capital, Gastops is best known for The company adeptly its contributions to the advanced prognostics capability on the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine used on the Lockheed Martin F-35 — a multirole combat aircraft. Just this past year, the company soared to new heights by shipping its 3500th online condition monitoring sensor to the Pratt & Whitney program.
“Our contribution to military aircraft traces back to our collaboration with Pratt & Whitney during my earliest days with Gastops when MetalSCAN was selected for the F119 engine for use on the F-22 Raptor, becoming the first online, full-flow oil debris sensor system to be successfully deployed on airborne engines,” reminisces Horning.
Gastops expanded its portfolio in the early 2000s to work in the wind turbine market, packaging established technology into a fit-for-purpose design that services and monitors the health of the entire gearbox and transmission.
The world has caught wind of Gastops’ condition monitoring sensor advancements as some of the largest wind turbine manufacturers across the globe use the company’s MetalSCAN technology as a de facto production standard. From sky-high wind turbines to land-low oil and gas, the same technological axiom has been applied, even on some of the world’s largest cruise ships.
On top of developing and distributing online condition monitoring sensors, Gastops has constructed a portable debris analyzer called ChipCHECK, used by airlines, maintainers, and military operators to significantly reduce engine maintenance turnaround time.
Gastops could be described as an oil-check for the aircraft, marine and wind turbine industry: “if your mechanic could call you up to tell you about early wear conditions, recommend adjustments to your driving and tell you when you need to schedule maintenance, that might be a fair analogy,” says Horning.
The company adeptly combines human ingenuity, applications expertise, and machine intelligence to lead the future of the industry into real-time predictive maintenance. Part of moving the condition monitoring needle forward for Gastops has been partnering with companies like Breeze Eastern and Teledyne FLIR to establish a state-of-the-art maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) facility in Halifax.
“We also have advanced condition indicator development capabilities, oil analysis services and our simulation capabilities that are evolving to provide digital twin design for marine and airborne applications,” says Horning.
Another collaborative venture was added to Gastops’ radar this past week — Raytheon Intelligence & Space has made a robust investment in Gastops under Canada’s Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) program, which will support a multi-year research and development collaboration with Pratt & Whitney to develop the next generation of critical equipment intelligence solutions.
This investment is intended to fund the development of an advanced version of the Oil Debris Monitors (ODM) currently employed in the F135 for the F-35 Lightning II and the GTF commercial engine family. The expected outcome of this innovation pursuit: an ODM with increased sensitivity and reliability. In addition to that, Gastops’ ChipCHECK product line will be tested and validated for inclusion in Pratt & Whitney engine maintenance programs.
Horning is a strong advocate of collaboration and network support, which is why the company has established so many partnerships to maintain a local presence in key markets outside of their Canadian offices. When Horning isn’t busy innovating in the lab, he likes to spend time with his wife Carie and two children doubling up as a father and year-round sporting coach.
“I’ve found that spending a few hours in the rink or on the baseball diamond with the kids is the best form of relaxation and a great way to take care of my mental health,” says Horning.
