LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
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This letter is written in hopes that our membership is in good health as the holidays come upon us. I would like to start with some great news for our Organization! 2020 is the 30th Anniversary of SPIDA. What a great accomplishment for all the men and women who devoted their time to build and keep this organization relevant and successful in our industry.
I began my involvement with SPIDA in 2012 and joined the Board in 2013. I had the pleasure to work with some great stewards of our industry. Our 2013 Board Administrator was Toni Sylvester. Toni was a wealth of SPIDA knowledge and history and such a pleasure to work with. Other Board Members I had the pleasure to work with were Bill Stout, Art Morrell, Mark Smith, Steve Cutts, Tony Morganelli, Norm Grusnick, Bob Tumberger and Bob Reid. Thanks to these individuals and all those that came before them to help promote and develop the spiral industry. The same devotion to our industry is evident today in the leadership of our current board. I want to personally thank the board for all their time, hard work, support, and dedication to this organization. Our industry appreciates your service.
The 2021 ASHRAE show in Chicago has been cancelled due to the uncertainty with the pandemic. This is one of the chances we as Board members have of visiting with our membership at our General Membership Meeting. We are saddened by this lost opportunity but have exciting news that we are still on track for our 2021 Spring Annual Membership Meeting in San Diego, California. Our meeting is planned for April 22-24. We are planning out our event and will have updates coming out. Bob Brumleu, of Omni Duct has graciously offered a tour of his Buena Park plant. George Hedley will be the Keynote speaker. George is a business building expert, along with a top construction industry speaker and professional business coach. What a great city to have a spring conference in. There is so much to do and see and we are working to have an action-packed meeting and social events. We hope that you will join us and learn more about SPIDA, with the opportunity to network with your peers.
I also want to thank all of the hard-working folks and companies who have continued to work and provide spiral and associated products to the air distribution business. This has been a trying year for all of us. I feel we have learned how to protect our employees during this pandemic. Temperature checking, sanitizing everything, wearing mask, social distancing all while meeting construction schedules. What a true test for all of us. While the pandemic is not over, we will continue to work hard and promote the spiral industry.
I send my prayers and thoughts to all SPIDA members and hope you and your families stay safe. Please join us in San Diego for our Annual Membership Meeting.
Weldon Weeks, President – SPIDA
Vice President of Operations, M & M Manufacturing
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SPIDA Original – Bill Busse |
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Bill and Connie Busse
Yosemite National Park
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Bill Busse, former owner of Air Systems in Las Vegas, was one of the original founding members of our organization that first met at the Chicago headquarters of Spiral Helix in 1980. Bill with several like-minded spiral duct manufactures organized the SPIDA organization to promote spiral duct and to share knowledge within the small but growing market segment.
Bill began in the industry as a sheet metal worker for Holbrook Company in Salt Lake City in 1957 as a union sheet metal worker. He eventually found his way to Las Vegas working for FB Gardner. When FB Gardner decided to leave Las Vegas, Bill attempted to buy their spiral machine. Unsuccessful and determined the future of the industry was round, Bill was able to find and purchase a used spiral machine in Indianapolis. He opened Air Systems Inc. in 1980 with the only spiral machine in Las Vegas.
Over the years, Bill grew the ASI business to include a stocking wholesale business for commercial and residential contractors in Las Vegas and Reno, a plan and spec manufacturers representation business, and an equipment line.
His 30+ employees eventually included all of his children. Air Systems’ projects included the MGM Grand, Bellagio, Mirage and Caesars Palace hotel/casinos and Las Vegas’ McCarran Airport to name only a few.
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Bill and his wife Connie recently celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary in September. They are enjoying retirement and travelling. Bill is slowing down a little since his “dare devil” days as a pilot and the first licensed hot air balloonist in Nevada – Evel Knievel’s doctor had to put him back together after a particularly harrowing ballooning accident.
He and Connie are enjoying some quieter times now with their five grandchildren and their recent great grandchild.
SPIDA would like to thank Bill Busse and his family for their contribution to our organization.
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The Busse family celebrate Bill and Connie’s 64th wedding anniversary
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Save the Date! San Diego 2021 General Membership Meeting |
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The SPIDA 2021 General Membership meeting will be held on April 22nd – 24th at the Westin San Diego. The hotel is located in the heart of downtown and walking distance to the Gaslamp District.
“Entrepreneur of the Year” building expert and Get Your Construction Business To Always Make A Profit! and The BIZ-Builder Blueprint! author George Hedley will be our keynote speaker. The meeting will also feature a tour of Omni Duct’s manufacturing facility. Additional education topics include cyber security and lean manufacturing. Join and learn from the experts in the spiral duct industry while socializing at the USS Midway Museum, whale watching and visiting the San Diego Zoo. Information and registration are available at: www.spida.org/sandiego.
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SPIDA welcomes the new owners of Cleveland Tool and Machine.
On May 15, 2020 Cleveland Tool and Machine was purchased by John and Julia Bortan. John is a native of Cleveland and earned degrees in Engineering and Finance from The University of Akron. He has spent the last 13 years working for Parker Hannifin, in various assignments in US locations. He moved his family to Cleveland from Tampa, FL. John has served as the General Manager of Cleveland Tool and Machine prior to the purchase.
Julia is a CPA and has specialized in International Tax Accounting and will serve as Cleveland Tool and Machine’s financial controller. The current management will remain in place during a transition period of one year or more as needed. John says, “I am looking forward to getting to meet more of the people within the industry.”
John and Julia have one year old very active twin daughters.
Cleveland Tool and Machine is a global supplier of sheet-metal forming machinery, specializing in duct fitting production.
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John and Julia Bortan
Owners Cleveland Tool and Machine
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Add your story here! Please share your member news with the organization. Has your company opened new locations, added new locations, added a key employee or other news you would like to share?
Please contact Scott Witherow for inclusion in future Pipeline Newsletters at
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Prime Metal Products
Prime Metal Products was opened in 2020 by three partners with extensive sheet metal experience; Herb Gibson, Mike Myers and Joe Bergman. They service 14 states surrounding their Western Nebraska plant which includes two coil lines, laser and water jet cutters, and four spiral machines. The 108,000 square foot plant is located in Gering, NE, about three hours north of Denver. Prime Metal Products services commercial HVAC duct and roof curb customers from their union facility.
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Hennemuth Metal Fabricators
Hennemuth Metal Fabricators (HMF), founded by Gordon Hennemuth in 1954, is a family-owned and operated full-service ductwork fabricator. Staffed by a team of eighteen employees, HMF provides innovative client solutions that help customers increase their profitability by decreasing their field labor costs. Operating from its 60,000 square foot semi-automated facility located in Oakdale, PA, HMF specializes in producing rectangular and spiral ductwork for the commercial and residential markets in Pittsburgh and the surrounding tri-state area.
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Lashley South Texas
Lashley South Texas, LLC began when Ted and Emily Liljenwall purchased the Austin, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio branch offices of Lashley and Associates from Brian Lashley in 2006. Ted and Brian had a handshake agreement in 2001 to sell these offices within 5 years when Ted was brought on as branch manager. Lashley South Texas has grown to 21 dedicated employees and in December 2016 LST entered the spiral duct manufacturing market as a natural complement to their stocking wholesale and plan and spec businesses. In 1988, Ted started in the spiral business and has been active in the spiral duct manufacturing and spiral distribution business for over 30 years. The Lashley South Texas San Antonio office is the base of manufacturing with a 20,000 square foot warehouse and an 8,000 square foot adjacent office and warehouse with the spiral duct machine. Their Austin and Corpus locations have approximately 8,000 square feet of stocking warehouse space.
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Metalco Incorporated
Metalco Incorporated, established in 1999, is a distributor of prime coated steel, stainless and aluminum to the HVAC manufacturing industry. Spot and contractual options with domestic and import metals are available and being negotiated now for 2021. They offer perforated and non-perforated options in slit coil and cut to length for spiral pipe and HVAC related duct. Metalco services the continental United States by strategically locating inventory at qualified toll processors, throughout the country.
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Production Products
Production Products, Inc has been supplying HVAC and sheet metal machinery and products domestically and internationally for 30 years. PPI offers a full line of sheet metal forming and cutting machinery as well as many commonly used sheet metal shop supplies. Based in Charlotte Hall, MD, just south of the Baltimore-Washington area, PPI has 15 employees that work in their facility along with four more employees throughout the United States. You can find PPI’s supplies, machines, and service technicians working around the world.
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Spinfinity
Spinfinity manufacturers spun sheet metal components and connectors specifically for the spiral duct manufacturer and fabricating contractors. They manufacture AccuFlanges, closure band systems and bellmouths in round and oval. They also manufacture pressed elbows and OEM spinnings made to customer specifications for a variety of industries. With two factories in the United States, one located in the Pacific Northwest, and one located in Virginia, Spinfinity ships to customers and distribution partners nationwide.
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Second City Metals
Second City Metals celebrated 20 years this summer and was started by Joe Landry specifically to supply steel to spiral pipe manufacturers throughout the country.
Second City Metals refers to its business as the “one-stop” shop for spiral manufacturers since it supplies all metal manufactured on a spiral machine including galvanized, perforated, PVC, galvannealed, stainless steel, aluminum and aluminized.
Second City Metals also supplies 60 inch galvanized coils to those companies with coil lines.
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Allied Mechanical Services
Allied Mechanical Services is a Michigan based, full-service mechanical contracting firm. With offices in Kalamazoo, MI and Grand Rapids, MI, AMS has over 220,000 square feet of manufacturing space. With a fully equipped, newly expanded facility in Grand Rapids, AMS fabricates spiral, oval, and rectangular duct. With their partner companies: Air Components, ControlNET, Engineering Plus, and Third Coast Test and Balance, Allied Mechanical Services can meet all of their customer’s needs.
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Crown Products partners with wholesale distributors and manufacturer representatives in the HVAC industry. They manufacture residential sheet metal products HVAC distributors need to meet the demands of residential new construction contractors. Crown’s commercial duct division provides job estimating and custom duct fabrication for round and flat oval spiral, rectangular duct and takeoff fittings. HVAC distributors and manufacturers’ reps have relied on Crown’s product quality, on time shipments and customer service for over 55 years. |
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Board of Directors Meeting |
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The board of directors and various committees met virtually on September 21st and September 22nd via Zoom. In attendance was Weldon Weeks - M and M Manufacturing, Robin Stegall -Hamlin Sheet Metal, Reid Boydstun - Spiral Pipe of Texas, Scott Witherow – Design Polymerics, Pat Brooks – SMACNA, Alvin Dueck – Tradesman Manufacturing, Steve Stratton – Dixie Metal Products, Ryan Barnes – Sheet Metal Connectors, Jerry Liddell – Set Duct Manufacturing, John Newland – Hercules Industries, Bill Busch – Northeastern Sheet Metal, Brennan Hall – Johns Manville and James Nicholson from our association headquarters.
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Due to the pandemic, the annual spring membership meeting in San Diego was cancelled back in April. The committee plans on having the meeting at the same location in San Diego in 2021. Plans for our membership meeting that coincided with the AHR Expo were recently cancelled.
The annual Snips SPIDA spiral duct insert will be issued again this year, multiple reminders have been sent to the membership. Membership levels remain steady, but we are always looking for new members.
The technical committee will be exploring testing of corrugated spiral duct as a way of reducing gauges and/or improving strength. Labor and material cost of flanged duct versus slip connections are a possible future project. Any technical project of interest to you? Please contact SPIDA with your ideas.
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Virginia Beach Sports Center
Exposed spiral duct provided by Hamlin Sheet Metal
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Please send photographs of spiral duct projects of stadiums, arenas, high profile project, etc. along with any details you would like to share (name, location, size of project in pounds, feet, etc.) to switherow@designpoly.com and james@madcrouch.com for upcoming Pipeline publications. |
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SPIDA encourages its members to contribute or submit any news that is either related to their own business or the industry in general.
Some examples of topics to submit are:
- Acquisitions
- Company anniversaries
- New facilities
- Changes in personnel
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Join SPIDA at the AHR Expo – CANCELLED |
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The tentatively rescheduled AHR Expo May 15th, 2021 has been cancelled by the ASHRAE organizers. Plan on joining SPIDA at the AHR Expo in Las Vegas in 2022.
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Stay up to date with the latest news and information from SPIDA. Like our community page here:
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Allows us to reach existing and prospective members with relevant articles and publications, as well as information regarding upcoming conferences and meetings.
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