U.S. Pipe’s Post

Transcript

Water is essential to life. It is undeniably our most valuable resource. And the founders of US Pipe recognized that importance when they began operations in 1899. Back then, there was no way to know they were laying the foundation of the waterworks industry in America and building a company that would supply the world with clean water for over 125 years. It's a great sense of pride at US Pipe, knowing that to build communities you need safe drinking water. We provide the pipe that provides that drinking water. We've been doing it since 1899. The majority of water provided to these communities is coming through something US Pipe produced. Supplying the entire nation with pipe for over a century has required enormous innovation in both the company's products and its processes. Back in the 20s we revolutionized centrifugal casting, so went from a pit cast upright method to spinning pipe and molds, which totally revolutionized where the iron pipe had been made for 400 years, made us much more efficient and could bring more water to the public. After that was the TYTON. joint just a simple sturdy push on joint connection. Part of the reason the TYTON joints been so successful is it's a bottle tight joint that will not leak and it changed installation from 30 to 45 minute job to less than 30 seconds. Continuing the trend of innovation, in the 1960s, the company transitioned from cast iron or grey iron to ductile iron pipe, perfecting the process of changing molten iron's chemistry to make it more resilient. Gray iron had been in existence since the 1400s. Grey iron was a strong material, but it was rigid. If you hit it with a sledgehammer, it would shatter. Ductile iron, it yields before it breaks. Now if you hit it with a hammer, you just deny it. And you have to hit it with a big hammer to even dent it. Moving from cast iron to ductile iron wasn't the only change in the 60s. About the same time, another monumental shift was occurring as concerned about conservation grew. US pipe eliminated the sole use of raw iron ore or pig iron in favor of 90% recycled content using scrap cars and metal, saving resources and energy while becoming. But truly environmentally friendly product. It's a beautiful process. I mean, we get scrap out of society. We melted and we made ductile iron pipe with that material. Ductile iron pipe is a superior choice for wildfire prone areas because of its resistance to heat. But innovations like the authentic US Pipe, TR Xtreme and TR Flex restrained joints also made the company's products the solution for seismic and ground movement affected areas. By 2021, all these advances culminated in the HDSS Restrained. Point revolutionizing the way we move water and wastewater, HDSS is the highest rated joint in the industry. What we've done over the years as part of our innovation process is attempt to make products that are easy, almost foolproof and we would like the products to perform. For well over 100 years, the innovative spirit of US pipe that originated technologies like the TYTON joint, field Lock gaskets and HDSS has improved the entire water. And wastewater industry and in the process made US pipe the largest provider of domestic ductile iron pipe in the country. When you're the leader, you have to set the standard for the industry. A lot of times people that have been around a long time just want to do it the only way they know. But that isn't the culture that we built. That isn't the kind of leadership or team that we have. I think the company's got enough of a vision to see that things are changing and they're going to change. And if we don't change with it, we're going to get left behind, you know, if a company doesn't innovate. The bottom that. One of the key components that keeps that innovation alive at US Pipe is an experienced workforce with exceptional loyalty to the company. I've been with US Pipe 52 years. I started with the company straight out of college. I'm probably the only person of my group of friends that has worked for the same company their entire career. The thing I might be most proud of that US Pipe is the way we take technology and people and put them together. And because we were able to marry those two items together, we're able to sustain the success we've had. I'm just amazed at the team of people that we have now. If you look in the plants today, the four guys running the plants all came up from the shop floor. Enjoy working for #1 I enjoy being the best. And being the best requires constantly looking toward the future. For US pipe, that means modernizing its fossil fuel dependent melting process. The introduction of induction furnaces is revolutionizing the way that we melt iron. Switching to reduction melting will have great benefits for US pipe. First and foremost, safety. We put safety at the front of everything we do. The employees will be less exposed to molten. Iron and moving parts don't make us cleaner, don't make us more efficient. It will be more environmentally friendly, not just for the surrounding communities, but for the country at large. Our project will be one of the largest induction furnaces in the US and probably around the world. Moving to induction melting really provides a long term future for us as well that we know it's a sustainable source of energy versus relying on old coal-fired plants. Looking at that, electric melts really initiated vision within the company. Site where can we be in the next five years and in the next 30 years and in the next 50 years. It's an exciting time to be US pipe our ownership at quick Crete has been very supportive of helping us become generational company. So it's exciting to see what the next generation will do with all this opportunity. I really do see that what we're doing in the next couple of years will be talked about in the 150 year video. They're going to be saying, hey, those old timers in 2024 really had some great plans. What we're most focused on is. Delivering clean water to homes, that's the thing we do, that's what we're proud of, and it's something that we endeavor to do for generations to come ues Vision and innovation have made it the leader in the waterworks industry, but it's calling to serve communities worldwide with safe, clean water has set new standards for excellence and service for this Made in America company 125 years. Is only the beginning.