Special Episode with Bruce Stewart and Max Ceron

The CWB Association hosted this year's annual Welding Industry Day Conference in Red Deer, Alberta. Join us as we bring you special episodes recorded on-site to keep our members on top of what’s new and exciting in the steel and welding industry. A special thank you to Cooperheat Equipment for sponsoring this episode! Cooperheat has a dedicated team of professionals and prides itself as the go-to experts for solving thermal technology challenges globally since 1957.

Today's special guest, Bruce Stewart, Competency Manager at Tech Heat, shares his remarkable 30-year journey through the specialized field of heat treatment. From humble beginnings answering a newspaper ad in 1991 to helping develop a nationally recognized trade program, Bruce offers a fascinating glimpse into an industry that has transformed dramatically.

When Bruce first entered the field, heat treatment technicians were considered "below the bottom of the scale" in the trade hierarchy. The entire Western Canadian heat treating industry consisted of just 20-30 technicians using primitive methods like tiger torches and temperature crayons that might be "within 100 degrees" of the target. Fast forward to today, where sophisticated electrical resistance and induction heating systems allow for precision control within specific parameters, and the industry has grown to over 300 specialists. For welders and fabricators looking to understand this critical aspect of quality control, this episode provides invaluable insights into the science and craft behind proper heat treatment.

Check out Cooperheat Equipment:
Website: https://cooperheatequipment.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cooperheat-equipment-ltd/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cooperheatequipment/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cooperheatequipment/

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Transcript

Introduction to the Podcast

Speaker 1 0:02

All right, I can check. Check, I'm good. So I'm Max Duran. Max Duran, cwb Association Welding Podcast, pod pod podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin. Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Teron and I'm here in sunny yet smoky Red Deer, alberta, for our wonderful Welding Industry Day Conference 2025. Today has been a wonderful day of sessions and conversations and context and networking and as a part of that, we have our wonderful sponsors stepping in to do some of the podcasts. Today's podcast and this podcast is sponsored by Cooper Heat Equipment and with me today I have Bruce Stewart, who is the competency manager and technical heat treatment of technical heat treatment for Tech Heat. Yeah, how are you doing?

Speaker 2 1:02

Bruce.

Speaker 1 1:03

Great, thank you, awesome, awesome. So let's start with just today. How's it going so far today?

Speaker 2 1:07

It's been really good. I put a presentation on earlier, I watched one earlier tonight and it went really good Very good engagement, a lot of good people and everybody's doing it for the same thing. So I think it's going really good.

Speaker 1 1:16

Good.

Speaker 2 1:16

What was your presentation on program development? So the heat treatment industry the tech heat's part of and Cooper is part of we have a field heat treatment technicians that have to trade across Canada, and it was about the program development that I helped out put together with with with our organization.

Speaker 1 1:33

So let's, let's go back to to, I guess, to where this story is going to start, and that's with you. So you know how did you find yourself in this line of work. You know at what point did the bug get you?

Speaker 2 1:46

Well, let's go back a long way.

Speaker 1 1:47

Yeah, yeah, that's all right, these gray hair coming with honesty.

Speaker 2 1:51

So actually that's a funny story because it was back in 1991 when I got into the heat treating industry itself here in Alberta and I answered an advertisement in a local newspaper I think it was the Edmonton Journal for a heat treating contractor had no idea what it was about. I think I was on unemployment at the time and they mandated you to apply at so many jobs.

Speaker 1 2:08

So many jobs a week, yeah, I remember.

Speaker 2 2:09

Yeah, so that's what happened. And when I went there and they explained it to me I'd had actually worked in the oil field a little bit and I had seen it. It's a very specialized industry. So he was quite impressed the manager at the time there that I'd even knew what it was. Yeah, and it was like you're good to go, You're starting on Sunday. And that's what happened and I got into the field, into the oil field business that way. So I've been in this since 1991 in the heat turning industry.

Speaker 1 2:33

So in 1991, like I got into the business in 93. So in 1991, um induction heating wasn't a big thing. It was around, yeah, but it was real expensive and mainly for smaller components.

Speaker 2 2:48

Yeah, the induction side with electrical resistance they were doing. That's what we got into.

Speaker 1 2:51

Yeah, so I was kind of wondering what was the business like back then.

Speaker 2 2:54

Yeah, well, it was a lot smaller than it is now. There was in 1991, when I look back at it, there was probably only 15 to 20 people that would be considered. That would be a full-time job Wow. In this province, you know they would probably have 30 or 40 people during shutdown times and stuff, but it's it's. It's grown dramatically now.

Speaker 1 3:11

Yeah.

Speaker 2 3:12

So we have over 300 members that do this type of heat treating work. Well, it's not just shutdown time.

Bruce's Journey in Heat Treatment

Speaker 1 3:16

Now it's actually part of welding process preheats, post heats, annealments. You know it's kind of a, it's not a thing. That was just for specific things. Like I remember when I first got into welding, the only time I'd have to worry about resistance heating or any of the heating processes was for AR plate or QT and we're putting thick slabs onto onto other thick pieces. And I mean now I think it's kind of become a part of a lot more processes. Oh yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2 3:42

It definitely has. They even do it on pipelines, which was predominantly just done by.

Speaker 1 3:46

Tiger Torches back in the old cowboy way. Yeah.

Speaker 2 3:48

So they're doing that. A lot of code changes to the industry and stuff like that. So yeah, you're a hundred percent right, they do preheating that you talked about when I worked in 1991, they didn't pay us to come preheat or any other way. You know they're paying someone to do that specialized and now they know like probably half the work we do out there is pre-heating on components and stuff like that. So it just shows how it's evolved 100%.

Speaker 1 4:10

Did you have a trades background before you got?

Speaker 2 4:12

into the heat game. No, in 1991, I just I graduated high school in 88. So I went to the oil field and I started a pipe fitter apprentice, I started a mason apprentice, I started a bunch, a few. Before I figured out what I was getting into.

Speaker 1 4:26

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 4:26

And then the heat treating industry. That got me involved in 91. It's a very it's a very small, unique industry, yeah, and it kind of traps you and it's really hard to get out once you get in. I've tried to get out of this industry three times but I just keep moving into different roles. I've told them you, I've tried quitting welding twice officially, yeah, and here I am.

Speaker 1 4:47

Yeah, and that's what it is.

Speaker 2 4:48

It's these metal trays that we work in and the oil field we work in alberta.

Speaker 1 4:49

It kind of gets in your soul, right?

Speaker 2 4:50

so it's uh I know I've had a great career in it and it turned out really well for me, so so you're talking about coming in 91.

Speaker 1 4:57

You know not that many technicians out there specifically, and you know I, I I cut my teeth in saskatchewan. There's a lot, obviously, procedures and qualifications that require preheats and post heats and inter past temperatures, but it was predominantly, like I would say, 99 torches or belchers or, like you know, different types of propane or natural gas heating options, right, right, um, which is slow and messy and expensive and dangerous, yes, right. So in these last 30 years, you know what kind of uh advancements have you seen? You know industry take on.

Speaker 2 5:35

Well, with the preheating stuff that we're talking about a lot of code. What they've realized is if you actually do it properly, the, the actual end result is a is a better product that lasts a lot longer. So do it properly, the actual end result is a better product that lasts a lot longer. So the and the development of the trade program that I was talking about today, where the heat treatment technicians actually recognize as a trade in Alberta and across Canada and New Brunswick and in Saskatchewan again this year. So you're from Saskatchewan. So that was what some of the biggest changes to it and actually the them understanding and researching of how important it is to do, and then I mean that's how a lot of and to do it right and to do it properly, not just throw torches on it and keep it spinning and ah, good luck, yeah, well, and I imagine people welded a little bit differently in 1990.

Speaker 1 6:13

Yeah, which is what you started to do today too. Yeah, absolutely yeah, and that's.

Speaker 2 6:16

That's how the heat treating the things that we were doing in 1991, when I started uh, are unacceptable today.

Speaker 1 6:25

You know we just didn't.

Speaker 2 6:26

They did. Things were completely wrong. Nobody cared about anything. So there's a lot more, uh, moral aspects to it. Today, people were doing it for for good reasons and stuff like that, and the craft itself is a lot better recognized. We were treated like dirt.

Speaker 1 6:39

Yeah, kind of bottom of the scale, bottom of the scale, yeah.

Speaker 2 6:41

Yeah, you know, below the bottom of the scale because we were in a trade Right and there wasn't any union organizations that were helping us out or anything like that. So, and I wouldn't like to throw shade on any craft or trade and stuff like that, but we were at the bottom of the barrel.

Speaker 1 6:55

Yeah, and that must have been frustrating, because you're supporting such an important part of the industry that obviously needed you. Yeah, it that obviously needed you. Yeah, it obviously needed this. How did how did you start gaining or how did your field start gaining that recognition in industry like that? We got to pick up the phone and call these people. They're the specialists we need them.

Speaker 2 7:15

Right, and I think a lot of that came. Just as you know, Alberta kept expanding and booming and growing, and growing, and it got bigger and bigger and new materials started coming into place and they they recognize the need for heat. Treating was more important with these new materials. You know the mild steel that a lot of people were talking about, even at the last presentation at lunchtime, the carbon steels and stuff like that they get away with. Porch preheating they get away with some of these other.

Speaker 1 7:37

There's not enough. There's not enough ingredients in there to mess with really.

Speaker 2 7:44

Right. But as the power industry grew and we get with these creep strength, enhanced ferric steels and stainlesses and higher chromes, that's where the preheating all our things actually came to light. So it was just like everybody just figured it out on their own and we were so happy that they actually respected what we had to do.

Speaker 1 7:56

I remember when I, when I was first started welding heavy industry it was, you know, there were stainlesses, duplexes hadn't really been invented yet and there was always a tendency to be careful with temperatures and stainless, because it's obvious, you know like you sugar it out and it's done.

Speaker 2 8:10

Right.

Speaker 1 8:10

There's that, there's that scenario. But it wasn't until I started working with nickels and in canals that we started really having to dial heats in, because it doesn't take much to go from the right temperature to too hot and ruining, you know, half a million dollars a year.

Speaker 2 8:26

You know what I mean, right, right.

Speaker 1 8:27

And you can't trust a tiger torch to distribute the heat evenly enough that all of a sudden you're trying to get to 400 degrees over here and over there you're 800 degrees, and that's just not going to fly.

Speaker 2 8:37

Yeah.

Evolution of Heat Treatment Industry

Speaker 1 8:37

Right. So these specific materials as they evolve, I'd imagine your industry has to evolve with it.

Speaker 2 8:44

Oh, absolutely, and that's what's changed our industry, like you said. That's where we've grown from that little handful of people that took care of it to where we're at today is because of those material changes and process changes and the Inconel and stuff that you're talking about. That's very specialized, like there's only a handful of ULers that can even weld that stuff.

Speaker 1 8:59

Yeah, yeah, Actually, when you get good it's pretty fun, but it's hard to learn, Right right.

Speaker 2 9:03

And we do the first time I worked with any Inconel talking about that we do some high temperature annealing on them which is quenching leaning. So we'll take it up to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit, then hot strip it. But that's for welding, it's for weldability issues.

Speaker 1 9:14

For weldability.

Speaker 2 9:15

yeah, yeah completely different than what we normally do our heat treating with. So there processes like that that we take care of in this industry too that I never saw in the 90s when I was doing it.

Speaker 1 9:25

Now, what about the scope of the size of things? I know that that was always seen as something limited and I had bosses tell me because you know, we started seeing some of the electrical resistance and induction systems come out, but they always seem like for smaller pieces. You know, when we had big, greater blades that are 10 feet long, you're have you're still pulling out the torches, but I've seen the technology. Now that they, you can kind of do anything though.

Speaker 2 9:48

Yeah, oh yeah, they can do what. What exactly the advanced? We can do anything. They do bucket wheels, they do all kinds of stuff with breeding, with electrical resistance Induction's a lot different, you know, with the bolt removals and stud removals and stuff like that Very, very specialized. And the combustion side of things is where we turn things into a big oven, so now we can cook a whole vessel on site instead of having to put it somewhere else. Right, well, that's always been around, but it's more commonplace today.

Speaker 1 10:12

So like I was just going to ask, like we used to have to send stuff in Saskatchewan to Alberta to get heat treated because you know there were some smaller places around tough to get stuff pre-treated or heat treated properly and and sends like and and you would, and there wasn't great paper trail for it, there wasn't a lot of documentation. You know you kind of just trusted that things would go and then come back with stuff done to them. You know what I mean. Yeah, that's changed, obviously now.

Speaker 2 10:41

Yeah, I think that's across the country. You can get a lot of heat treating done. The signatory contractors or the heat treating contractors we deal with, they cover everything from across Canada. In Saskatchewan when I started the industry in 1991, the company I worked for at that time we took care of everything from Northern BC all the way to Manitoba. Oh, really, and there was only two or three heat treating companies that did that in this part in the Western part of Canada.

Speaker 1 11:02

I remember that yeah.

Speaker 2 11:05

And then, like I said, that was the 20 or 30 of us that took care of all that work, but because it had evolved. So much.

Speaker 1 11:09

I mean. That's going to be a good feeling, though, Like you know, like you know, they need you. Yeah, You're not getting fired anytime soon.

Speaker 2 11:14

No, no, that's for sure. In the early nineties it was sporadic because there wasners that you know are working lots of hours all the time making lots of money and I think that's where a lot of the evolution of the industry came from, too, cause people were saying look, I can actually make a career of this.

Speaker 2 11:33

You know, it was tough in the early nineties when I started, probably in between some kind of eighties thing, you know, between the nineties or something, cause we weren't very busy, you know, or five months out of the year, you always had to have something else on the, on the goal. Where now young guys are coming into this and it's a career, you know, they start off and they're they're raising families with this and this is their, this is their only job.

Speaker 1 11:53

So is it a like? I mean you work as a trainer now specifically yeah, I got a note here you help develop and deliver hands-on training across Canada. So so that means to me that there's curriculum, there's like how long is the course, what's the training process look like for what you do?

Speaker 2 12:11

Well, the Quality Control Council, who I was with for the past 16 years before I started with TechEat just a little over a month ago. Here we did develop the training program that's recognized through Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training. So it's an apprenticeship. So it's modeled after an apprenticeship. So it's a four-year program. So every year in a minimum 1,800 hours in a calendar year, they come back and they take a training course just like an apprenticeship, except we're non-compulsory, so we don't have six weeks of training.

Speaker 2 12:34

Our courses are one to two weeks at a time.

Speaker 1 12:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2 12:36

And it's making sure they get the hours and stuff like that, which is just a phenomenal story because, like I said, when we did the nineties it was hey, wild West Five, yeah five minute training. This is how we do it, and this is the way it gets done so. The the the evolution of the training has been has been massive in the last 20 years, and the trade itself, like we're a recognized trade in Alberta, new Brunswick, and then we're going to be a recognized occupation in Saskatchewan.

Speaker 1 13:00

And that's a lot of work, like I've education systems to get new classes or courses running and the amount of hoops you got to jump through is substantial. Oh, that's great.

Speaker 2 13:11

I didn't know you did anything like that Cause. That's what my presentation today was on a little bit, and it is crazy, it is crazy and the amount of people that actually had to come, you know, collaborate to do this. That's right, competing contractors and everything. It was crazy.

Speaker 1 13:23

You know, you think you got a good idea and something that's good for the industry, and then you have a couple of people agree with you and next thing you know it's a two-year project.

Speaker 2 13:33

Yeah, that's how it was and when they were putting that together in Alberta, I was actually on the operations side of the management from the heat training contractor side, so I didn't get involved with the root causes, but as soon as it happened that I've been involved with it ever since. So the work that they did the founder did before I got involved is truly remarkable.

Speaker 1 13:50

So where could someone go get this training? How does someone sign up?

Speaker 2 13:54

Well, most of the time, the hardest thing about it is like any other thing you have to get a job with the company that's doing it and then, after you get some experience and stuff like that, the minimum requirements are a thousand hours six months type thing, and then you just Go apply for the apprenticeship, take apprenticeship training. Yeah so, and the Quality Control Council of Canada is the only recognized training provider across Canada.

Speaker 1 14:11

Okay, and so you know. You said it's a week or two of training here and there, you know, between accumulating your hours. Where would someone go to do that?

Speaker 2 14:25

Like these certified training centers, we have a certified training center in Ontario Brownfield, ontario and as well as in St John, new Brunswick.

Speaker 1 14:33

Okay, so we cover all the country, yeah.

Speaker 2 14:35

Yeah, we cover all the country with those three branches.

Speaker 1 14:37

And are you finding you're getting enough students coming in to meet the demand of what's required of the industry?

Speaker 2 14:45

Well, we are, because it's a very small industry so we don't get huge numbers you know on a good year we can get through 50. I think the best year we ever had we had like 78 students come through, which is very small in any trade industry, but not for a new one, like I mean. But going forward I imagine that there's going to be some growth yeah there definitely will be growth that with these hydrogen plants and the and the, the you know the the not I shouldn't say mars and the nuclears.

Speaker 2 15:09

And exactly, yeah, they know they all need heat treating absolutely but it's not going to go away anytime soon.

Speaker 1 15:14

Well, the, as we see here, the invention of new materials, new alloys, new filler, consumables yeah is, I would say, almost monthly. There's something new getting invented in the world and the science that backs up these new processes is getting much more defined. It's not just like, oh, we need less manganese. It's like, no, no, we need less manganese and better weldability. And it's good at minus 40 and and and and right.

Speaker 2 15:46

Yeah.

Speaker 1 15:47

When they design these procedures. Now, when I look at these new consumables coming up, they're very specific for heat, very specific for all the data that's going in, the variables, essential variables coming in and out. I only see more opportunity for heat treatment. You know industry to grow supporting the welding industry. Yeah, a hundred percent. I said those creep strength, those P15Es, they're really supporting the welding industry.

Modern Heat Treatment Techniques

Speaker 2 16:07

Yeah, a hundred percent. I said those creep strength hands, those P15Es, they're really changing the heat, treating industry, because they're realizing that if they're, if they're done improperly, that their service life is really reduced. Yeah so they're really pushing. New codes have come out. There's a mandatory appendix in section one, now mandatory appendix eight, which is the very first mandatory appendix regarding local post-bulb heat treating, which our technicians do with electrical resistance ever, and that only came out three years ago. So that is massive that it's written into code now as a mandatory appendix.

Speaker 1 16:35

And probably very necessary.

Speaker 2 16:36

Yeah, and I said 1991, there was nothing. Absolutely Put a third of a couple here. Go Give me a chart.

Speaker 1 16:42

And here's your crayon. That's within 100 degrees. Yeah, good luck.

Speaker 2 16:46

And here's your crayon, that's within a hundred degrees. Yeah, good luck. Yeah, the welder's in charge of the preheat.

Speaker 1 16:49

Yeah, absolutely yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 16:49

Well, we would go up there and the welder would be at lunchtime.

Speaker 1 16:52

Torches are just running all afternoon, that's right.

Speaker 2 16:54

Not dogging welding yeah.

Speaker 1 17:02

No, but it's really that's very specific degrees too hot. I'm going to have to wait an hour, let it cool down a bit and then, okay, now I can weld, and it's like I mean, that's a very imprecise way of doing things and a waste of time. Yeah, right, and a big waste of time. Yeah, now for the people that are listening and kind of don't understand what we're talking about, maybe, and how they work, like, how are they different from each other and what are they used for?

Speaker 2 17:26

Well, for the heat treating thing. Most of the time that we talk about within the trade is for electrical resistance of local post-weld heat treating of piping and tubing. So a lot of components in the heat treating world are done in ovens. Right, they're big components, they have big ovens and you get a really good heat treatment when you do things in an oven. Yeah, now we're trying to mimic that. When we do it local, yeah, the problem with that is it's very hard to do because we're not allowed to cook the whole thing.

Speaker 1 17:50

And the environments around you. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 17:53

We're out in the wild, you know, with the winds, and all different temperature. We're trying to do it minus 40 instead of a controlled environment. Rain or whatever. Yeah, exactly so that the electrical resistance process has really changed, just with the qualifications and the code stuff and everything like that. But the other heat treating process is the. They're always been there. There's not much change in them, except we're putting a lot more effort into making sure we're doing them properly.

Speaker 1 18:15

Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 18:16

Right, that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 1 18:17

And then for, like, electrical resistance. Yeah, you know how does that work. How does that heat up a part? How localized can it be?

Speaker 2 18:26

Well, electrical resistance theoretically is, we're running current through a resistor. The resistor is heating up the wires and getting hot. That wire is covered by ceramic beads which can contain the heat without disintegrating you know, melting or anything like that and then that heat is transferred to the pipe via conduction. So we can be very precise because we can make these pad heaters.

Speaker 1 18:45

Kind of like the hot wires in a toaster?

Speaker 2 18:47

Yep, exactly, except we have them insulated and we're controlling them and we're putting them on manually and stuff like that, awesome.

Speaker 1 18:52

So then you can, you know, relatively follow the weld, you know, and just heat up what you need without heating up what you don't need.

Speaker 2 19:00

That's right, yeah, don't need, that's right, yeah, well, actually the the heaters themselves are called flexible ceramic pad heaters and they come in all kinds of different sizes and shapes. And then the technician is the one who designs that process and how they're going to be put onto, you know, into specific areas and control heat sinks or heat losses or heat blocks and all kinds of other Thermal. Thermal dynamics is the big word they talk about it and that's what we have to same as welders.

Speaker 2 19:22

You know the welders got to put the rod around there, but everybody that looks at a welder. It's very easy, it's not.

Speaker 1 19:27

No, there's a lot, and we use the terms thermal resistivity, thermal conductivity.

Speaker 2 19:31

At the end of the day.

Speaker 1 19:32

They're all part of the dynamics family, so yeah, exactly, so we're working together, yeah. Well, I mean post-seating was life right, that's. It was in every code. We had to do it to every anything over half inch. We were, you know, sitting on torches half the day and and then they started bringing in newer equipment and electrical resistance and it was like, oh, this is way easy, yeah and a lot more precise and then they started bringing in technicians, which was the next step that we're doing it, and we got to just, you know, sit and watch.

Speaker 1 20:04

And then he'd be like, yep, okay, go. And it was like that's really nice right right to have that kind of uh the team? Now it's not just you as a welder faking your way through a preheat with very rudimentary tools.

Speaker 2 20:16

Things are getting dialed in, right, yeah, and you're getting a record of something happening. Well, right, because he did produce charts and things like that. I didn't know how they got away with the tiger torch. Now, every day, you know, everybody wants a record of everything.

Speaker 1 20:26

Oh man, you don't. It was pretty rough. Well, the funny story.

Development of a Heat Treatment Trade

Speaker 2 20:31

We talk about the welding because we were working at Sinkford in the mines or Suncor in the mines. We were doing a bucket wheel there, Mm-hmm, and we welding crew, the apprentice had the wrong temp sticks, oh, and the welder kept saying why is this so hot? Why is this so hot? So he had a 600 degree Fahrenheit temp stick. Right, but the other one he had was a 400 degree Celsius temp stick, so your 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Speaker 1 20:56

Yeah, yeah, they were just doing it a lot hotter. Things happen Well. You get it hot and then you wait an hour. What do they say? You lose about 70 degrees an hour in the open air, or something like that.

Speaker 2 21:06

Someone told me Could be.

Speaker 1 21:07

It was like some formula for if you screw up. You got to wait. These probably made up somewhere in the field, but you pick up a lot of those little weird numbers out there.

Speaker 2 21:15

Yeah, yeah, exactly Now what about induction heating? What? Induction heating is a completely different element. I'm not a subject matter expert in induction heating. I did took a course during the Christmas break here last year and stuff like that. So that's inducing a current through magnetism and all kinds of different things. They produce eddy currents. It's very, very scientific, but that's used for a lot of different. It heats up stuff very, very quickly.

Speaker 1 21:38

Yeah.

Speaker 2 21:38

We can take something from ambient temperature up to a thousand degrees, 2000 degrees within minutes. Yeah Right, so they do that for expansion, turbine expansion, expansion on nuts or bolts when they're trying to take them off.

Speaker 1 21:48

Yeah, shaft unit with shafts shaft, like when you have to do sleeves. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 21:52

Yeah, so the heating process is completely different scientific world and it's just used for different things. And we don't use induction very much for our local post-weld heat treating, for post-weld heat treating after two pieces of pipe have been welded together. Yeah, it can be, but that's not what it's set up.

Speaker 1 22:06

And it would be really expensive. The tooling's still not as common, right. That's right, yeah, and they are very, you're right, they are very, very expensive yeah. Yeah, now in Alberta with your company.

Speaker 2 22:19

You know, like you just started, you familiar with the contractor side for 30 years.

Speaker 1 22:22

So what drew you in to come under the family here?

Speaker 2 22:25

Well, I worked with the owner there years ago.

Speaker 1 22:28

Scott, yeah, scott.

Speaker 2 22:30

When I was with a different heat training contractor. He actually worked for me for a period of time and then he'd moved over and done some other things and he was very instrumental in the trade program development and stuff like that as well. So when I was with the QCC and I was ready to transition and I had great, great career with quality control council of Canada as well and it was just time for me to do something. You know, getting a little closer to retirement, one last kick to change something up like that.

Speaker 2 22:53

And me and him were talking about a few things and his vision for the competency manager role that I have within TechEat, carrying on the training and everything still with the heat treatment thing, kept everything intact with me morally what I've been doing since 1991.

Speaker 2 23:06

And it's a great opportunity for me to finish my career out with a company. That's very, very forward thinking and they're. They like their technicians and we want to. You know, we are very, very proud of the technicians and we want to move that forward, which not all contractors do, and that's what made my decision to come over and work with Tech Heat.

Speaker 1 23:23

And since you've gotten back in the industry now, back in front of people with the equipment, you know, kind of back and developing and supporting these training programs, you know what is it that you're going to bring to the flavor now, Cause I'm sure you have a vision of what you want to see happen within tech, heat and the training. What is it that you want to start seeing within the company or or bring to it?

Speaker 2 23:43

Well, I just want to continue making sure that the craft is recognized. That's really what my end goal is. The competency part of it is to ensure that our people are being doing things the best they can. The tech heat way is the one way. So that's, that's putting it out for the tech heat way. But most off is just to ensure that we, you know the continued improvement and understanding of our craft and our technicians and the importance of it. Like with the changes, all these new changes are coming up. We, we get into this when we're in this very specialized industry. You get into this thing. Do people really care?

Speaker 2 24:11

because we're so small, we don't get recognized for it so we really want to push that, that the work that we're doing is important and and they do need us yeah, even though they don't care when things fail. Exactly that's when you really care and that's the thing with our job. It's kind of thankless because what we do, the results don't.

Speaker 1 24:30

If you don't hear from them, it's good. Exactly yeah, exactly Right yeah that's a big thing is.

Speaker 2 24:36

I want to carry on and make sure that people are aware of how much I appreciate the trade and I think the trade should be recognized and it should be more appreciated than it is.

Speaker 1 24:45

So is it something like you said it was apprenticeship? Is it a nationally recognized Red Seal? No, it's not.

Speaker 2 24:51

That's the that's the next mission that we're kind of trying to look forward to yeah, and that's through the CCDA. Well that I haven't figured that one quite out yet. So it took a long time. In Alberta, new Brunswick and now Saskatchewan I've made application to other provinces, but because we're so small they really don't.

Speaker 1 25:07

Well, and that's probably your three major mining provinces right there too. Yeah, probably some alignment to that.

Speaker 2 25:12

Yeah, and that's a good thing, and then as long as they work together. But now you're trying to get government agencies working together.

Speaker 1 25:23

And sometimes that's a little tricky. Well, we're basically hired by CSA, right? So trying to navigate that sphere of supporting industry but still keeping the government happy is a tricky spot, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 25:35

And that's what we. I tried to navigate that with the Quality Control Council, which is tough because I have other people to answer to and some other people have different directives. But we're still going to try to foster that within TechEat and within the Cooper Eat organization and stuff like that. So we're not going to give up on that either. We're going to try to continue this, and that's our end goal is to get the trade red sealed across Canada.

Speaker 1 25:52

Well, that sounds super interesting. Like I mean any. Anytime we can develop another trade avenue, it means that there's a need for it. Industry needs it.

Speaker 2 26:05

And it and that's. Uh, those are all positive things, right, yeah, and cw is a great organization that we can do. Uh, you know, come to these conferences, stuff like that, because a lot of the cw people are involved with us. You know, they work with us in the field and then they, they can promote us as well well, let's finish on on that note, specifically about this conference.

Speaker 1 26:17

You know what is it that? Tech heat, cooper heat. You know, as an umbrella company, hope to get out of attending and sponsoring these type of events. Well, I, I can't speak for for cooper. You know, as an umbrella company, hope to get out of attending and sponsoring these type of events.

The Future of Heat Treatment

Speaker 2 26:26

Well, I can't speak for Cooper Heat, you know in general they've only been here a month and a bit, but I understand they want to have the exposure. And you know, when I talked to Scott here today he said when he comes to these things he's not even selling his product. He wants to do what's good for the industry and support the industry. And then when you do that, good things happen in return.

Speaker 1 26:44

Yeah, so that's what we're doing.

Speaker 2 26:45

We're here to support the industry. I mean, CWB is a great organization and that's what we're here for.

Speaker 1 26:49

Have you had a pretty good response at your booth? Today?

Speaker 2 26:52

Well, we don't have a booth here or anything like that, oh, no, okay, I was wondering if you guys were set up out there. No, we don't have. I'm not in the sales part, but we're pushing it a little bit yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 27:03

And which of the sessions have you attended?

Speaker 2 27:07

The other one I attended just before mine was a heat treating of the 3D metal forming stuff there because they're getting into heat treating issues With the WAM. Yeah, yeah because of different microstructures and stuff like that, which I found very interesting, but it's very, very new too.

Speaker 1 27:21

Yeah, because WAM goes in at a much lower temperature, so post heat is is very essential, right yeah, and I I wasn't very familiar with WHAM at all when I saw the acronym, I had to look it up.

Speaker 1 27:30

I'm like well, that's what they're called. Everything's an acronym nowadays. I can't keep up with it. Yeah, but that's the from Cooper Heat and Tech Heat. You guys being here presenting and being a part of the family, you know we're always looking to see how we can support. So just let us know what we can do to help support your initiatives, because I know as a personally, as a welder, how important this part of the industry is right now and will be. You know, 30 years ago, like we said, it was a, it was a fly on the wall.

Speaker 1 28:05

Yeah, and now it's getting to be, it's, it's a part of codes, there's an apprenticeship cycle. The future is bright and strong for for your industry.

Speaker 2 28:13

Oh, that's awesome. I'm really happy that's my first podcast ever did. I'm glad it was conducted by a welder. We actually had really good things to talk about Absolutely, absolutely, like.

Speaker 1 28:22

I mean, I've done the things that you were talking about, yeah, so this is none.

Speaker 2 28:25

Of this is scripted or anything you know, so that's awesome.

Speaker 1 28:29

Any messages for the, for the audience, about tech heat how to get ahold of you guys and find out about you.

Speaker 2 28:34

Any of the social medias. We're online all the time we're we're a high tech company. We're here to support the needs and we're here to support the technicians, so we're definitely your go-to heat treating contractor.

Speaker 1 28:51

I can guarantee you that Awesome, well, fantastic, and for all the people listening, thanks so much to our sponsors that are here at Welding Industry Day supporting us, and again for all the people that have attended and our great staff and everybody here. I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope you have a wonderful night. We still got another day and a half here to go and it's going to be fantastic. Make sure you check out all the episodes that we're recording this week and learn and support and, of course, we couldn't do without our sponsors.

Speaker 2 29:16

So thank you very much, thank you very much. We hope you enjoy the show.