Shortly after the company was founded, a fatal pipeline explosion occurred in New Mexico, launching a federal investigation which found that the pipeline which failed had corroded due to excessive, undetected water. The pipeline company was then mandated to install a better class of water monitoring technology which would more accurately monitor and report moisture in their gas distribution infrastructure, prompting the company which had experienced the accident to contact Tunable Photonics which built and then delivered two prototype TDLAS measurement devices to meet federal requirements and expectations.
