Let’s Talk Trash! MAR/ APRIL 2025
©2024 - 2025 The Keenan Group, Inc. 2
This article is PART 2 of a continuing story (as reported in the school year 2017-2018 Let’s Talk Trash news) taken from AO Smith’s History Book printed © 2015. Enjoy this amazing story of AO Smith!
Who is
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Celebrating!
Story continues... Continued from the Jan/Feb issue…
Up until about 1915, primitive arc welding was performed with bare wire and a heavy electrical current. By 1927, A.O. Smith was producing welded pressure vessels in a variety of sizes and capacities. The vessels were capable of withstanding thousands of pounds of pressure and well suited to the grueling oil production environment.
During the Great Depression in the 1930’s, A.O. Smith was temporarily insulated from economic loss due to prior pipe line orders; however, that was only for two short years when hard times reared its ugly head. The first bit of financial relief came from the unlikeliest of sources. Prohibition ended and a great demand for beer barrels emerged. A.O. Smith recognized another opportunity to fill a new customer base need. Since oak beer barrel companies were few, a new idea emerged: welded steel barrels and were developed with a new lining that eliminated the need to replace the pitch in used kegs. As was so often the case, A.O. Smith was first to market, and soon the two lines were producing 8,000 beer kegs each day for roughly three years, until their next diversification opportunity: to find an answer to underground pipe corrosion that shortened use. The use of enamel or glass type of coating... To be continued in the next issue!
A.O. Smith developed a new, lightweight steel car frame. Within a few short years, he was selling these frames to a who’s who of car makers including Cadillac (one of A.O. SmIth’s first customers that remained a customer for 90 years), Oldsmobile, and Ford…. I n early 1912 Lloyd Raymond Smith was elected president; his father, Arthur O. Smith, had died unexpectedly at the age of 54. The company that L.R. Smith took the helm of in 1913 was now almost exclusively an automotive supplier with a seemingly endless need for car frames, axles, control rods and other components by manufacturers of passenger cars. In 1916, the A.O. Smith Corporation was created under the laws of New York State. Ray Smith was a true entrepreneur, willing to take significant risks if the opportunity seemed right. His insights and vision were remarkable, as evidenced by the new businesses that sprang up during his 30-year tenure as chief executive of the company. Similar to his father and grandfather, Smith believed deeply in the power of technology and its ability not just to create breakthrough products and processes, but also to overcome the drudgery of manual work. “Why must men waste so much of their lives doing the work that machines can do?” With the huge demand by auto manufacturers for parts, Smith and his engineering team from all over the world had to find a way to increase the production of auto parts by creating an automated process to meet the high demand. Thus, A.O. Smith Corporation created the automated frame plant, dubbed the “Mechanical Marvel” that was a revolutionary engineering achievement. The plant received world-wide attention
The WW I bomb shows off A.O. Smith’s new welding technology and was the catalyst for a number of product innovations in the years to come. The standard of the industry was seamless steel pipe that was expensive and could only be produced in small diameters.. Presented with this challenge, Smith said it would be simple, “Bend a 30 ft piece of steel around some air!” This low cost pipe helped the growth of the oil and natural gas industry. A.O. Smith Corporation was taking the oil industry by storm. The oil industry in the 1920’s was looking for pipe of at least 24 inches in diameter with walls and connections that could withstand up to 1,000 pounds per square inch of pressure. This provided another engineering challenge for A.O. Smith!
Arc & Flash Welding
Arc welding is a welding process, in which heat is generated by an electric arc struck between an electrode and the work piece.
Flash Welding is a Resistance Welding (RW) process, in which ends of rods (tubes, sheets) are heated and fused by an arc struck between them and then forged
Cities began to create gas utilities to provide homes with natural gas for heating and other appliances. Not only was A.O. Smith instrumental in helping to create this new industry, in the years to come, it would benefit in a much different way from the ready availability of natural gas in America.
(brought into a contact under a pressure) producing a weld. The welded parts are held in electrode clamps, one of which is stationary and the second is movable.
The Chinese had fashioned pipe out of hollow bamboo to carry natural gas around 2000 BC, and the ancient Greeks laid miles of pipe to carry water.
and cemented A.O. Smith’s reputation as a technology innovator. From being able to produce approximately 2,000 car frames per day, this automated plant was capable of producing 10,000 car frames per day with just 180 workers.
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