Industrial Talk is onsite at PowerGen and talking to Stephen Hanley, President with Thomas C. Wilson, LLC about "100 years of power generation solutions".
Scott MacKenzie and Stephen Hanley discussed the future of energy, emphasizing the need for sustainable and environmentally friendly sources. Scott highlighted the importance of building relationships in the industry, while Stephen stressed the need for alternate energy sources due to environmental concerns and methane gas issues. Both agreed that the industry must adapt to meet the challenges of the future.
Action Items
[ ] Promote Thomas C. Wilson LLC website
[ ] Stay innovative, provide excellent customer service and quality products to adapt to industry changes
[ ] Attend PowerGen conference next year to build relationships (Steven Hanley) - no timestamp given
Outline
Industry changes and challenges with a 3rd generation boiler and heat exchanger professional.
Thomas Wilson, 45-year industry veteran, shares insights on his company's history and expertise.
Stephen discusses relationships and networking at the conference, highlighting the importance of staying connected in the industry.
Stephen shares his love for oysters, mentioning he enjoys grilling them on his Shaco and has had them at various restaurants.
Stephen highlights industry shift towards diversification and alternative energy sources.
The importance of steam in various industries, including chemical manufacturing, power generation, and refining.
Speakers discuss challenges in transitioning to electric vehicles due to infrastructure and energy needs.
Stephen's company, Wilson's, is a 100-year-old manufacturing business that provides tools and equipment for boiler and heat exchanger manufacturers.
Stephen shares stories about their grandfather, a boilermaker who invented a product to clean boilers.
Scott MacKenzie is fascinated by the historical perspective of the industrial revolution and the role of steam energy.
Alternative energy sources and their potential for future growth.
Stephen sees continued development of alternate energy sources, citing geothermal as a promising area.
Both speakers agree that companies must be nimble to adapt to changing energy needs and debates.
Stephen emphasizes the importance of innovation and quality in business.
Scott MacKenzie interviews Stephen Hanley of Thomas C. Wilson Heat Exchangers.
If interested in being on the Industrial Talk show, simply contact us and let's have a quick conversation.
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boilers, industry, power, oysters, steam, talk, geothermal, tubes, company, put, wilson, develop, long island, years, great, industrial, chemical, generation, business, manufacture
00:04
Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So grab your work boots,
00:21
and let's get right once again, thank you very much for joining industrial talk. And thank you for your continued support of a platform that celebrates industry professionals all around the world. Because you're bold, you're brave, you dare greatly you are passionate about solving problems and you collaborate, as you can tell in the background. We have some drummers I don't know Oh, there they go. We're broadcasting on site power Gen 24, here in New Orleans, Louisiana. And of course, we can't go to New Orleans, Louisiana without a parade of some sort. And that's what's happening on the show floor as we speak. All right, once again, go out to industrial talk.com. You're gonna get all the great interviews from all of the professionals out there as well as we have one. We have podcasts, we have learning management systems, we have all the information that you need to be specific to well, your success. So let's get cracking in the hot seat. We have a gentleman by the name of Steven Hanley. Did I say that right? Yes, sir. And he's from Long Island, New York. And it's Wilson
01:22
right. Thomas C. Wills
01:24
Thomas C. Wilson LLC. It's an LLC. Yeah. Steven, it would have been great if you were handling. Wilson.
01:32
Well, I am a Wilson. I can't keep up with it. But I'm a handli. And a Wilson.
01:37
Oh, there you go. All right. All right. For the listeners out there. Thomas, give us a little background on who you are, and why you're such an incredible professional.
01:46
45 years in the boiler and heat exchanger industry is by him a professional. Our company is a company that's almost 100 years old. No way. I'm a third generation owner, no manager running the company developing good relationships. I have two children, and and they're going to be in two girls. They're figuring that out. Welcome. They're talking to professional. They're both professionals. So I can't you never know what the future brings. Yeah, gotcha. I didn't mean to bring I would never, I would never push them to do you know, they gotta do what they have to do. They're good. They're good. They're good.
02:25
I gotcha. All right. You're here at the conference. What makes this conference so well, special for you.
02:34
Most importantly, is the relationships I've developed through the years coming back here. And before I come to the show, I go through the list of all the customers that are existing. And the people that I know in the industry, you got to stay connected. And
02:49
it doesn't hurt that it's here in New Orleans. And so you go out to dinner and you do some dinner stuff. Well,
02:54
you know, food here is just delicious. Yes, it is. Yes, it is one of the things they deliver, they deliver. They do deliver. Yeah, they do deliver. Yeah,
03:07
it's not hype. It Well,
03:09
last night. I live in a small town in Long Island called Oyster Bay. Long Island. Sounds familiar? Yeah. Yeah. There's a famous singer from there. Yeah, this is a guy that, you know, sings piano and kind of, you know, rocks Long Island for a long time. He's very close to it. But there we have the best oysters I thought in the country. So last night, I had a sample some Dorlin oysters, and they're plump. Delicious. And the most important thing is everybody knows how to surf.
03:42
Yeah, you get into a situation where somebody doesn't know how to shuck it properly. And then you're you're chewing on some this the shell and it's like, no, no, no, no, you need it. Yeah. And boy, have you had the chargrill?
03:55
Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm a I love to cook. And I cook oysters up all the time on the grill on my Shaco. Oh, yeah. as we as we get in there.
04:10
Yeah. Because I've had, I've had oysters where the show was in there. And that's something I chip
04:17
it. The key is to make sure all the juice stays indoors. That's the most important part. You know, you've got all that. You want all that joy tonight and they gotta be ice cold. But let's get back to my industry.
04:28
Yeah, about that. Yes. I'm sorry. Time. Go ahead. So let me ask you this question. In you've seen a lot of changes happening in your industry? Certainly. What are the challenges that that face your industry today specifically to what you do? What are some of those?
04:50
Thank God our industries are multi. We not only covered power, but we also cover refining and chemical heating and cooling. So there's where diversified. So we kind of see things in the power industry has changed shifted from traditional power plants, nuclear power plants now to cogeneration, alternate power resources, solar, geothermal, hydro, you know, all those things are accelerating in the traditional power plant, which our products are used quite commonly in are declining. But over the last five years, a lot of those power plants that they thought that they were going to retire, if taking a second look at and said, hey, you know, maybe it wasn't so bad that old Bertha that was running that old boiler, versus a combined cycle unit when you need the power, you flick it on? Yeah, they're
05:49
good peakers good peaker.
05:51
But the long term is that in:
06:26
it's not even just the sales, it's, it's the the pressure it puts on the grid itself, you have you have a certain one, it's we're not developing and building these massive generation capacity. And then you have the infrastructure that has to support that those EVs and it's like cart before the horse type thing. But it's, it's above my paygrade. But I see some real challenges. If you head on down that road, you're gonna need that generation, you're going to
06:59
need a lot more generation a lot. I hesitate as a consumer on that, just because is the infrastructure there now to maintain that, you know, I don't just drive a little bit, I drive a lot, you know, so I'm, I haven't moved in that direction. But our industry in our business has shifted and changed away from those larger power plants in this industry. We have grown in chemical and petrochemical as we as we're going, but again, those are retracting, too, you know, the refining process here has been retracting, because we're importing a lot more refined product, versus, you know, just raw crude. So there's a lot of changes in the industry, a lot of
07:43
data. Yeah, but see, even in the world of chemical manufacturing, you still need some thermal source, you still need that to manufacture whatever the chemical is, you need it, you need tubes, you knew, and we'll see how else you're going to get around that. Everything that we look at, is made with like, what a petrochemical, I mean, everything that's right here, it's holding in your hand, that pet in this tables, everything. And that requires that energy to be able to do that.
08:16
That's correct. That's correct. So Thank God our business and our industry have been solid through the years for the last 100 years and will continue because steam is a very important element in all those industries that we just talked about food to sugar to, to power generation to refining Chemical Company, everything that we that we touch, how we get it and what we burn and how we how we move through that is, you know, is certainly what we're going to be burning is constantly changing. You're
08:50
the company Wilson's Do you manufacture? Are you vertically integrated? Were you manufacturing the boilers and what tell us a little bit more about that company?
09:01
Our company is a manufacturing company based in Long Island City New York croutons. Yes, we do, we start from Pisa steel, we turn we grind we mill we eat drink, we assemble tools, expanding cleaning equipment for tubes. So when you are constructing a boiler or heat exchanger, because of the coefficient of expansion and contraction, you have to suedes that tube to make sure it seals or weld. So we make that instrument called an expander. We also make to cleaning equipment for cleaning the tube after in process plugging, checking everything having to do with tubes installation, removal, checking and plugging tubes.
09:47
Yeah, so your your your one stop shop. Of course to you know where if I need a boiler I can contact you guys I
09:55
sell to the boiler manufacturers you sell to the boiler manufacturers All right, and heat exchanger manufacture. I don't make the boilers I make the tools to the boilers. Yes,
10:07
yes. That's the 100 year old business.
10:11
That's 100 year old business started by my grandfather, who was a chief engineer in the US Navy. Classic, New York, Brooklyn Navy, all ASIC, you know, was a chief engineer, actually aboard the Leviathan, which was one of the first Navy ships was a British ship, converted to a US Navy ship, and only had 12 boilers on it, and had 14 chief engineers to operate those boilers. And he was one of them, saw the need for cleaning saw the need to develop something. And here we are today. No way. Yes, sir.
10:47
There was just that, that need that saying, Hey, here's your grandfather, I gotta manage these and maintain these boilers. And I'm finding that I'm having a hard time getting in the nooks and crannies and having the tools to be able to do that adequately. And therefore, let me do this, and let me change this. And it just turned into this business.
11:06
Well, he was an entrepreneur, as you know, back in the 20s. And saw that need develop the product was an inventor, we'd get a contract from the government, when, as my grandmother would tell me, the company was shut down for a week or so celebrating that contract, and they delivered it and go after the next one, you know, so he was, he was a great guy, he was a great guy. And beautifully that my mother and my grandmother continued the corporation, through the years after my grandfather had passed away at a young age, being a boilermaker. And being in that industry, that was a tough, it was a tough industry to be in being in the boiler room, coal fired boilers, and you know, you know, all these specimens, and who knows what else was in there? And so, yeah, so we kept going, and here we are, still go, go install. See,
12:01
that's just God, I have so many questions to ask, especially from that historical perspective of, I can only imagine your father and your grandfather, and the stories they have, and how they just sort of, of course, you've got to stories, too, but it's just, it's just fascinating, because that was just part of the industrial revolution that that need to create that thermal energy, the steam the to make things work.
12:30
Well. People don't realize, you know, what steam does for them for the world? What Oh, yeah. I mean, I was ended up, you know, the restaurant last night, they were speaking and eating my oysters, as we were talking about before. Absolutely. And I go, I go, do you know where that electricity comes from, to the waitress or whatever, and she goes from the cord. And, you know, on down the line, we talked her all the way through where it really came? Yeah, the nuclear or the fossil, or the plant that was being generated steam and accepted that she looked, she was like, Oh, thank you. So
13:10
where do you see it, go and put your future hat? What do you see that are the trends, we we've spoken of the alternative generation and how that might be impacting the business in a way and, and but then again, you got geothermal. I'm quite familiar with geothermal. I'm quite familiar with all of the even even the solar when you start talking about para balls and parallel, parabolic, and then they flash they do the steam that all of that stuff. Where do you see it going?
13:43
Well, I think that we're going to continue to develop alternate sources for energy, I think it's just in our DNA and in the world, it has to, because of the emphasis on the environment, the emphasis on now we have the biggest issue, the methane gas issue that's occurring, and you know, the toxins from that, and for how do you?
14:10
I mean, that's, that's, that's, well, you smelled the biomass, no doing what biomass does.
14:16
It's amazing what you think about it, though. You know, the New York City Housing Authority is getting rid of all its gas ranges in all of their apartments, and putting induction heating it, where's that? Where are you gonna get the electricity for that? So, every time there's a cause, there's an effect. There's a, you know, there's a, there's a balance and counterbalance of everything that we do. As far as just like we were talking about electric energy and electric cars, you know, where's that energy coming from? So we're going to continue to develop alternative energies. And some of these things were done to geothermal. Certainly, you know, it's been used around the world. There's probably better places for geothermal than the United States, but Have
15:01
you got the Imperial Valley? You got? Yeah, I think mammoth area I'm not sure if any other New Zealand New Zealand,
15:08
huge, huge, huge should be. Yeah, that plants there. So and also in Chile in Guatemala, there's others out there alright
15:17
on a fault. Yeah, there are.
15:20
No, that's not their fault. But hey,
15:22
there's a double entendre.
15:26
But that's where I see things. Yeah.
15:29
And you're just gonna have to be a company that is nimble to be able to respond to the changes, and there's no way you're gonna kind of get around to the use of that steam. Yeah, there's just always going to need to be that need to do that. How we get it is, then then you can have that debate.
15:47
Exactly. But as far as my business is concerned, you know, you need to constantly be changing. You need to be constantly being innovative. You need the best customer service in the world. You need a dynamic website, you need information, and you have to be reliable, and you got to make quality. If you do those things. They're easy. Like, if you believe successful, seven
16:10
out of eight, how do people get a hold of you? They're saying, Hey, I like what he's saying. He's got a silky smooth voice. If that whole boiler thing doesn't work out for you got to you got to radio voice.
16:23
-:
16:39
Stephen Thomas D. Wilson. He's a pro. You can tell he's done this before. All right. Once again, we're broadcasting from PowerGen here in New Orleans, Louisiana is power. Jim 24. He's already wrapping up, but he's done what you need. Now. He's making noise. Pity. He's the owner. Whatever. Anyway, thank you very much for joining. We're gonna wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned, we will be right back.
17:02
You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.
17:13
All right. That was a great conversation. Stephen Hadley. The company is Thomas C. Wilson. Heat Exchangers boilers and everything that's associated with that important stuff. company's been around for 100 years. Can you believe that? That just blew my mind. All right. That was power. Gen. So put that on your calendar when you have something to do for next year. Power Gen up at the top. Great event. All right. We're building the platform as you know, that industrial talk is here for you. We have of course podcasts we have technology Sprint's which highlights your technology. We have webinars, we have a learning management system, and it's all geared toward that education. You need to educate you need to collaborate and you need to innovate, and it is happening now Fast and Furious. Go out to industrial talk, reach out to me. Let's be a friend. Let's do that. All right. I want you to be bold, brave, and I want you to dare greatly each and every day hanging out with Steven, change the world. We're going to have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned.
