A lab was opened in 1978 in Van Buren, Arkansas with Bill Mayer who had been formerly an employee of Peabody Coal in its central lab. This lab still exists in the Std Labs family of labs and has had several managers including Melvin Holt, Brenda Briley and Dickie Horton.
Later that same year the company officially opened a lab in Zebulon, Ky with Bill Asher of the Whitesburg lab being the manager. Roy Boggs, Doug Tackett , Kim Jarrell and Mike Couch were also managers there. The lab moved to another location off of Ky 194 after a few years, where it experienced two fires. Both locations have been referred to in the company as the Pikeville coal lab. This lab was closed several years later and the work was moved to the Whitesburg lab.