We get involved with the coolest projects! Mechanical Equipment recently had the opportunity to sponsor a three-person welding team of high school students for the 2025 National SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC). SkillsUSA is a development organization that helps students become skilled professionals, leaders, and strong community members.

The team we sponsored included Aric Abbott, Jaden Sommers and Lou Jensen (the grandson of our very own Dean Powrozek). The team participated in several local and regional competitions, successfully advancing to each level before finally reaching the national competition. They were required to fabricate a backhoe loader bucket with a seat. The attached photo shows Aric, Jaden, and Lou with their finished piece.

The three team members competed as juniors from Hampshire, Illinois High School and finished in 11th place out of a field of 40 teams! That’s quite an accomplishment for these young men, and Mechanical Equipment was proud to support them!

Consider a Thriving Career in the Trades

Training in the trades is an important element of education for our future generations. Too many classes have been eliminated in high schools that were once taught in “shop class.” The focus has shifted to “everyone needs to go to college for a four-year degree,” which has not served all students well. Frankly, not everyone wants to go to college, and it often has nothing to do with their level of intelligence—it has to do with their level of interest in academics.

We need to provide alternate avenues for careers in the trades for those young people who don’t want more than a high school education but still have a desire to pursue a career that offers them good benefits, great income, and future leadership and entrepreneurial opportunities. The trades can provide all of that and more! We encourage anyone in our industry or others to support, sponsor, and/or offer mentorship programs to any young student wishing to pursue a career in the trades!

For more information about our company or to ask us questions about a potential career in the Mechanical Equipment industry, give us a call at 800-355-7061. We enjoy supporting growth and future talent for our industry.

More About SkillsUSA

SkillsUSA is the #1 workforce development organization for students and America’s proud champion of the skilled trades. They empower students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders, and responsible community members. Representing more than 442,000 career and technical education students and teachers, SkillsUSA chapters thrive in middle schools, high schools, and college/postsecondary institutions nationwide. Their mission is accomplished through the SkillsUSA Framework of Personal Skills, Workplace Skills, and Technical Skills Grounded in Academics, which is integrated into classroom curriculum.

A vital solution to the ongoing skills gap—where more highly skilled jobs are available than skilled professionals ready to fill them—SkillsUSA has served over 15 million diverse, difference-making members since 1965.

Learn more about SkillsUSA here.

Proceeds from the Gala go directly to Gilda’s Club and Malnati Brain Tumor Institute at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

This is an awesome event to enjoy with friends or to entertain customers. The Gala features an evening of great live music, silent and live auctions, food, drinks and a chance to win $10,000 for a $100 raffle ticket. Tables and individual tickets are still available for the event, however it sells out every year. This is a great corporate entertainment venue.

The Gala will be held September 10, 2022 at 6 pm at Loft 21 in Lincolnshire, IL. For more details and to purchase tickets, check-out LMCB.org.

Only 300 tickets are available and they sell-out every year, so don’t delay! See you there!

We are excited to introduce a new member of our sales team, Jeff Steck. He has joined Mechanical Equipment as a new Sales Engineer and will be working closely with our customers to provide sales, design, installation and start-up consultation for all of their heating and cooling projects.

Unparalleled Experience

Jeff has always had a passion for buildings and how they operate, specifically the systems within. After graduating from Marquette University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, he began work designing HVAC and plumbing systems at engineering firms, corporations and architecture firms.   

After 23 years of accumulating an intimate understanding of HVAC and plumbing equipment and how to design efficient working buildings, his career path shifted more toward implementation. Leveraging his understanding of how all the HVAC and plumbing components work together as a system, he worked for several contractors. They appreciated his problem solving and consultative skills that focused on solutions that maintained or restored the integrity of internal building components and systems, with a unique focus in hydronics. 

A New Career Path

Representing our “Best in Class” hydronic components to engineers, contractors and end-users is a natural fit for Jeff. He has worked with many of the Illinois-based manufacturing representatives, selecting equipment as part of the engineering process. After specifying Taco products for most of his career, he had past experience working with Mechanical Equipment (ME) who he realized has always been an outstanding partner for design. After working with ME for so long, Jeff has tremendous confidence in the integrity of the products they represent and the consultation services the company provides. He is now a proud representative for a proven leader in hydronics with the opportunity to now consult to the engineering world that helped create the expertise he can now provide.

“Working with Mechanical Equipment for many years, I have a deep confidence in the integrity of the products they represent and the consultation they can provide,” Steck said.

“Adding Jeff to our team brings us experience from the contractor side as well as the design side of the industry and his experience with both the mechanical side products as well as the plumbing side products, fits perfectly with both divisions of Mechanical Equipment,” said Dennis O’Shaughnessy, President of Mechanical Equipment. “You’d be hard-pressed to find a situation or application that Jeff can’t help you resolve! We are fortunate to have Jeff’s expertise available to our customers. Join us in welcoming Jeff to the team!”

LiquiTech, a company located here in Illinois, offers a comprehensive approach to improving water quality, safety, and purity by helping protect from Legionella and waterborne pathogens found in drinking water.

Water security is one of the most pressing issues facing facility owners and managers across multiple sectors. A clean water supply is essential to ensuring the health and safety of those environments. Having a solution that can improve the prevention of pathogens from entering and contaminating this vital resource is critical.

According to LiquiTech, 70% of all water systems are contaminated with Legionella. This issue has become extremely challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic because studies have found that Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs) that originate from the water supply can be a key contributor in causing secondary infections that may lead to severity and mortality of COVID-19 patients.

An estimated 1 in 7 COVID-19 patients will develop a secondary infection while hospitalized.

LiquiTech’s multi barrier water management technologies are ideal for the following industries:

HEALTHCARE

Help hospitals prevent the high cost and risk of HAIs by addressing waterborne bacteria such as Legionella, Pseudomonas and others that may live in their water.

FACILITIES/ENGINEERING

Consistent, high quality water is invaluable to an industrial or manufacturing facility’s structure and processes. LiquiTech can deliver custom engineered solutions to address the unique process water challenges at your facility.

COMMERCIAL / HOSPITALITY

LiquiTech’s water management solutions can help commercial properties maximize operating effectiveness and improve guest satisfaction, while providing a safe, clean environment.

Their product line includes:

• Point-of-Entry Filtration
• Ultraviolet Disinfection
• Copper Silver Ionization
• Water Testing

If protecting patients, guests, and employees is absolutely critical for your customers, give us a call to help educate you at 800-355-7061 and to discuss LiquiTech’s solutions.

Sometimes really cool projects fall your way. This giant stainless-steel air separator was one of them. A customer called asking if Taco made “custom” tanks, air separators, etc. Of course, Taco is capable of building virtually anything made of metal / steel that can be fabricated, and everything is ASTM certified. The customer needed a VERY large, custom air separator for a process application and the system required that the air separator be constructed entirely of stainless-steel.

Removing air and dirt from any hydronic system is critical to maximizing system efficiency and most importantly, for prolonging the life of the pumps and the rest of the equipment in the system. The project was a tall order, literally, but Taco was up to the task!

Custom Design

The design was based on Taco’s top-of-the-line 4900 series air and dirt separator with some very unusual dimensions; 132” (11 feet) tall and 66” (5.5 feet) in diameter. Flow requirements necessitated the tank to be 30” in diameter!

Once we had the requirements from the customer, we asked Taco engineering to provide design and full submittals, including drawings, pressure drop calculation and minimum / maximum conditions of the unit. After the submittals comments and design were finalized, the unit was released for fabrication using ½” wall, 304 stainless-steel. All work was performed in-house by Taco craftsman, using Taco equipment, including rolling the ½” wall steel on their own rolling equipment. Taco’s fabrication shop, certified welders and capabilities are second to none in the industry!

A Small COVID-19 Setback

The project began, just as the COVID-19 virus hit, requiring Taco to shut down briefly, then adjust to local (Massachusetts) state ordered production rules. This reduced the total weekly operating hours, limiting them to four-day shifts, and requiring sanitization of the entire facility at the end of each week to ensure the safety of their employees.

Despite this, Taco’s Fall River Massachusetts facility (the pumps and drives are made in Rhode Island) completed the fabrication, pressure tested the unit and shot-blasted it prior to shipping it. According to Anthony DeMoura, Taco’s Vice President of the Fabricated Products Division & PIFA Foundry Operations, this was the largest stainless-steel vessel they have ever made.

Specialized Shipping

A specialized cartage company had to be used because the air separator weighed four tons! As you can see from the photos, the design, transportation, and install was a tremendous success! Everyone involved in the project pulled together in order to make this custom air separator and the unit was featured in this month’s Taco newsletter.

Need a custom piece of equipment for your project? Trust us to handle it successfully for you. Give us a call at 800-355-7061 to talk through your needs and get ideas on how to tackle it.

Patterson-Kelley has announced their boiler, water heater, and installation training schedule for 2020. They are also offering sales training classes. This is a great opportunity to become a PK Certified Technician in 4 days, renew your certification in 2 days, or get 2.5 day product training for your sales team.

Class sizes are small and only offered on certain dates in 2020. Only 9 people can register per class, so ACT QUICKLY to grab your spot.

Patterson-Kelley has expanded their Training and Education Center, which provides value-added services in a hands-on learning environment. Housing state-of-the-art equipment, the Center is designed to enhance the learning experience. It is equipped with their full line of condensing and non-condensing boilers to create a real world environment so trainees can work efficiently and effectively.

Mechanical Equipment is sponsoring the training classes so you need to register with us. View the Training Calendar with class types and dates here and then call us at 800-355-7061 to register today.

2019 is our 20-year anniversary, so we are going above and beyond with prizes and fun.

Come and take a shot for a chance to choose one of 3 prizes in our Hole-in-One Contest, a 2019 Ford F-150 Pick-Up Truck or His & Hers Harley Motorcycles or $50,000.00 cash! Do you feel lucky?

Miss your chance at a hole-in-one? You can still win prizes in our Longest Drive, Longest Putt, and Closest to the Pin contests. But if that weren’t enough (it is our 20^th Anniversary after all) we will also have a special raffle, drawing 6 names where:

• 1 player will get one chance to make a 60-foot putt for $2,500;
• 4 players will each get one chance to make a Hole-in-One from 165 yards for $50,000 (all 4 could win); and
• 1 player will get one chance to make a Hole-in-One from 165 yards for $1,000,000!

Seriously, we love our customers and want to share our success with you. We wouldn’t be in business without your support.

We hope you can join us for a beautiful day of golf at the newly renovated Makray Memorial Golf Club^® in Barrington, IL.

Lunch will be served before golf, with fine dining and beverages after.

Details:

August 15, 2019

Makray Memorial Golf Club®
1010 S Northwest Highway (Rt. 14)
Barrington, IL. 60010
847-381-6500

Lunch: 11AM
Golf: Shotgun start at 12:00 Noon
Dinner: 6PM

Format will be a “Shamble”:

• Everyone will tee off on every hole, then everyone’s second shot will be from the spot of the best drive, (you pick up your ball and move it to the best drive spot).
• From there, everyone plays out their own shots on each hole.
• The team event will be a 2 best ball, foursome.
• Scores will be handicapped (using the Callaway System) and prizes will be awarded to the winners.

RSVP: Please respond no later than Friday July 12^th.  Space is limited, reserve early.  Call your individual Sales Rep or call our office at 847-526-3095 to confirm a reservation and Windbreaker Jacket size.

Pat has a long history in the commercial HVAC business. He started with a pipefitter apprenticeship right out of high school and was able to work his way up the ranks quickly in each of his positions. He became the Piping Superintendent at Murphy & Miller in Chicago, supervising apprentices, journeymen and foremen for ten years. He was also recognized as the youngest superintendent in Local 597’s history!

He then went on to become the Piping Manager at Westside Mechanical Inc., which added more responsibility and also allowed him to use his managerial expertise. Pat’s track record of success made him a highly sought-after person, and he was soon hired as a Project Manager/General Superintendent at International Piping Systems. That’s also where Pat met his future wife, June, who is now a Vice President at F.E. Moran, and where he also met Dennis at Mechanical Equipment. Pat also began attending night school at IIT, to obtain his mechanical engineering degree.

Eventually, Pat was offered an opportunity on the supplier side of our industry, becoming a Vice President at Flomech in Downers Grove, IL. Pat was responsible for overseeing estimating, sales, design, installation and start-up for all heating and cooling projects. His experience in contracting, gives him a great perspective of our customer’s needs, helping him offer excellent customer service. Pat’s design and installation background helps assure a smooth and profitable job for our customers.

Pat shared, “Coming from the contractor side to the vendor side, I made a commitment to be the vendor that everyone wanted to deal with. I always give 100% effort. I pride myself on that and I respond to my customers as fast as I can, 24/7 no matter the size of the order or how busy I am. Business is all about relationships and I plan to continue my excellent relationships for years to come.”

Dennis O’Shaughnessy, Mechanical Equipment’s founder, said, “I was excited to bring Pat into the ME team because Pat offers our customers yet another source for our ‘best in the industry’ customer service. His knowledge and design expertise is an invaluable asset in making sure that we are performing and delivering better than anyone else. His pipefitter experience tells him that sometimes what’s shown on a drawing doesn’t necessarily work on the job site. Having known Pat for 20 years, I have seen him grow and succeed in this industry, which makes me realize how fortunate we are to have him.”

Pat said, “I’m excited about working with Dennis and his team of people. He and I have known and respected each other for over 20 years. Mechanical Equipment has a variety of top-notch product lines and more opportunities to serve mechanical contractors. I like being able to help customers from A to Z and help save them money by helping resolve any issues, make changes or assist with the design.”

Pat is an enormously proud father of three children that keep him very busy, he also collects cars for fun, (he’s had over 75 throughout his life!) and if that’s not enough, Pat loves scuba diving.

Pat is available for engineering consultations, equipment specifications or anything at all that you need help with. Feel free to give Pat a call to help make your job easier. Welcome aboard Pat!

To make it easier to track your orders, our packing slips will now include the UPS tracking numbers, as well as a hot link, to click and check the status of your order. If you want to received an email copy of the packing list, with the UPS tracking number to track and hotlink to the UPS tracking site, make sure to give us your email address when you order and we’ll send that to you when your order ships.

As you will see on the sample packaging slip here, the hot link will take you directly to the UPS tracking site to see where your shipment is in the process with the estimated delivery date.

This is just another way we wanted to save you time and hassle when it comes to tracking your orders. You can always still call us, we love to hear from you, but now you have up to date info at your fingertips.

Let us know if you have any questions at 1-800-355-7061.

We interviewed our founder, Dennis O’Shaughnessy on what has changed over the past 20 years and where the company is going from here.

What prompted you to start Mechanical Equipment?

I was working as a Regional Sales Manager for Perma-Pipe (a company which we now represent). It was a great job and I learned a tremendous amount from my supervisor who later became the President of the company. But after twelve years of hotel beds and airplane meals (three and a half million miles), I wanted new challenges.

The company was extremely good to me and I hated to leave but I needed something else. I had done very well for Perma-Pipe and increased sales significantly in my region, so they really didn’t want to lose me either. So, my boss suggested that I become a manufacturer’s representative for their product! I loved the idea of getting back to direct customer sales, rather than management, and it seemed like an ideal solution for both Perma-Pipe and myself. It checked all the boxes I needed to have some new and exciting challenges. I left on the best of terms and will be forever grateful.

What’s the most satisfying achievement for Mechanical Equipment in the last 20 years?

I would have to say the positive impact that our company has had on the lives of our employees and our customers. Like most business owners, your colleagues become a personal responsibility for you. I really do feel like the people I work with inside our company, and those that I’ve been fortunate to get to know on a personal level outside the company, are like my work family. I don’t want to let anyone down or disappoint them. Of course, that isn’t always possible, but when it does happen, I can’t help but take it personally, even though I try to tell myself it’s just business. I’m happy that Mechanical Equipment has had a positive effect on their lives, and hopefully they feel like their lives are better for having worked here. I think they’d agree that Mechanical Equipment is a fun place to work!

What was a major turning point for the company where you grew, changed direction, or offered new services?

When I started Mechanical Equipment (there was no we then, just me) I only had two lines: Perma-Pipe and Advanced Thermal Systems expansion joints. I had a 10’ x 10’ office that Perma-Pipe let me use in exchange for training my replacement. Unfortunately, my two products were only on a small percentage of all the jobs that bid each year so I needed to find other product lines to represent, so I could generate a more even cashflow. Through help from customer suggestions and other rep firms that I had relationships with from my days at Perma-Pipe, we were able to generate interest from some manufacturers that wanted new or better representation in this marketplace. That was the significant turning point.

Everything changed as we started signing up other products. After we demonstrated that we could be successful with them, other manufacturers took notice and reached out to us to represent them. Our ability to sell a better product and more importantly service our customer’s needs with those products really took the company up to the next several levels. At times, it felt like I was hanging onto the tail of a runaway animal, but it was also very exciting! Now we have offices as well as 6,500 square feet of warehouse with a million dollars’ worth of inventory.

How has the industry changed since you started?

This is going to make me sound old but when I started at Perma-Pipe in 1987 the internet and email didn’t exist! Cell phones were just coming into the business world and were super expensive because you paid by the minute, so they were mostly used by upper management. I had a pager and would return calls from the airport when I got off the plane or from my local rep’s office wherever I happened to be that week.

So, most of our communications and business was conducted by phone and then confirmed in a letter that we mailed at the post office and received 3-5 days later. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of advantages with the rapid way that we communicate now, but nobody can deny that business and business relationships have become less personal.

Has there been anyone or any company who helped you most along the way?

I definitely need to recognize hundreds of people that made Mechanical Equipment possible. I really don’t want to name people because I’d be afraid that if I left someone out, they’d have hurt feelings. However, I do want to thank a few key people that were responsible making Mechanical Equipment possible.

My former boss Fati Elgendy. Fati took the raw talent in me, and taught me how to be a successful sales person, sales manager, and business man. He also taught me a great deal about life, during many long discussions after hours, and about any subject you could imagine. I learned the most in my professional career from him and I will be eternally grateful to him. Without a doubt, he is the smartest person I have ever spoken to, the finest “pure” salesman that I’ve ever worked with, and he was also the person that came up with the idea of putting me in business as a rep and created a flexible plan to enable my success.

I owe a huge thank you to my late parents, Bernie and Midge O’Shaughnessy. They loaned me money in order to establish credit with factories, banks, etc. I was very confident that I could and would succeed, however nobody provides the unwavering support like a parent. They talked me up when I got down, encouraged me when I got discouraged, and provided constant reinforcement whenever I had doubt. They kept me grounded by always reminding me that life can change on a dime, so never, ever take your good fortune for granted. To this day, I say thank you to every customer, for every order, no matter the amount, I am truly grateful.

Thank you to the factories that we represent. Without their belief and trust in Mechanical Equipment, we’d have a hard time growing the business and in turn our lives. I am humbled that they have allowed us to share their name on our letterhead, and for the support and good fortune they have brought to our company.

Thank you to our customers! None of this is even possible without them! When I first interviewed for my job at Perma-Pipe, I met with the owner of the company, Mr. David Unger. A wonderful, generous and unbelievably kind man that treated me like family. During my interview, he asked me “as a salesman, do you think you represent your company to your customer, or your customer to your company?” After thinking about the question for a moment, I told him that I felt that I represent my customer to the company, because without the customer, the company doesn’t need me! That truly is how I feel and how any successful sales person in any industry feels. Everything starts with a customer! You can’t make a sale, process an order, employ people to support the transaction or create a financial transaction, without a customer!

Finally, thank you from the bottom of my heart, to all of our employees! These people treat Mechanical Equipment as if it was their own company, and frankly, they have made it so. All of them bust their butts’ day in and day out for me and they’re the ones that deserve all of the credit. From estimating (putting out what I believe are the most detailed, complete and consistent quotations in the industry), to the inside sales support staff making sure your orders get shipped correctly and on time, to our inside sales team taking care of all the parts orders, and to the warehouse staying late for last minute emergency orders and deliveries. Everyone that touches a part of our business at Mechanical Equipment, does so with passion, dedication, and pride to do the best they can do every day. I am so fortunate to have assembled such a great team! As Leo Burnett, the founder of the greatest advertising agency in the world once said when he started his business, “Reach for the stars. You may not always catch one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either!”

What do you see for the company looking ahead? What should/could customers get excited about?

It’s hard for me to say, simply because even in my wildest imagination, I honestly never dreamed we’d be where we are today! I think the sky is the limit for Mechanical Equipment as long as we stay on our current path, and maintain the positive and grateful attitude we have now. Well known factory names continue to contact us, requesting representation in the Illinois market and that means continued growth. What business doesn’t want positive, controlled growth, right?

But we’re selective. We want to rep the best product lines and in turn do a great job for them. My strategy has always been to have no more than a dozen main product lines, and to become the industry leaders in product and system knowledge for those brands. Hopefully, we will continue to enjoy the relationships that we’ve developed with our customers over the last 20 years and continue to add more customers to the list!