Kevin Kucera with NW Signal Maintenance

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Industrial Talk, Kevin Kucera, NW Signal, IBEW apprenticeship, electrical industry, rail services, cell phone systems, wheel flat detection, ultra fast surge arrester, electromagnetic pulse, EMP protection, lightning arrestor, national labs, OEM switchgear, energy resilience

00:00

Scott, welcome to the Industrial Talk Podcast with Scott. MacKenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots and let's go All

00:21

right, welcome back to Industrial Talk, the number one industrial related podcast in the universe that celebrates industry professionals all around the world. You know you were brave, you know you were bold, you know you innovate, you solve problems, you do everything. You are amazing, and that's why we celebrate you on Industrial Talk. We are broadcasting on site right now, right this very moment. Distribute tech Orlando, Florida is the location, and it is. It's, it's about 17,000 people that are here to solve challenges and make the world a better place. That's what they're here about. In the hot seat, we have a gentleman by the name of Kevin Kucera, got

01:02

it absolutely.

01:04

NW Signal Maintenance is the company, and let's just have a conversation. How you doing? Man,

01:12

I'm doing great.

01:13

Yeah, look at you. Got your IBEW. You? Are you an IBEW? Man,

01:18

I was born and raised in the IBEW. Yes, I went through a five year apprenticeship in Duluth, Minnesota back in 1990

01:25

that's it. I was an IBEW too. My apprenticeship was the line work. So it's that's pretty cool,

01:32

absolutely. But I don't have a pen. Funny story. The president of the IBEW gave me my pen. Shut

01:37

the front door, really. They

01:39

want to hear the story. Yeah, I

01:40

want to hear a story.

01:41

This is a good story. I was at I'm a teacher for residential electricians in the joint apprenticeship training hall in Seattle, Washington. Part of the program is every summer for four years straight, we go to Ann Arbor mission, Michigan, and get teach the teacher training. So about three or 4000 teachers arrive in Ann Arbor. We get taught by PhDs from University of Tennessee, etc. And during the opening ceremony of the first year I went, which was probably six, seven years ago, I sat in the balcony front center, up top, and I love to sing the national anthem. Ah, both Canadian and US. Guy, hockey guy, yeah, so I'm up there belting it out, and I'm kind of by myself. My big group's behind me. I'm just choosing to take pictures. I'm the photo guy also, and I sing both fairly well. And then right after that, the president of the IBEW at the time, Lonnie Stevenson, gave the opening address, and he used me as a mark because he heard me singing. After that, we go out to the hallway, and I have some place to be. I have an appointment. Yeah, I'm like, I'm hustling, and he's coming up behind me trying to have it catch me. And I'm like, I don't have any time for you, man. And then finally, the cattle call starts at the door. We start backing up, and we have a talk. And, you know, hey, you know, small talk, we get out the door. And one of the passions that people do at this show is trade pins. I was about 15 feet away from my spun around. I said, Hey, Lonnie, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you for a pin. Well, he came up to me and took this off his lapel and gave it to me. Everybody around me about hit the ground. So that's the story of the pen. Thank you, Lonnie, and

03:28

it was good meeting her, man. All right, for the listeners out there, Kevin, give us a little background on who you are. What's your background?

03:34

I am a 34 year veteran in the electrical industry, in some nature, coupled with probably about eight or 910, years into the electrified transportation business, got a master electrical license in seven states, general engineering license in California, general contractors license California and trying to set the world on fire.

04:01

Okay, I'm all in. Tell us a little bit about NW Signal Maintenance.

04:06

Well, NW Signal Maintenance is primarily, initially a rail services contract. We put in somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 to 30 miles worth of cell phone systems and tunnels. For instance, we do wheel flat detection. We have specialized equipment for working in tunnels, some under bridge, truck equipment that do the reach around 30 feet back under the bridge. Very specialized stuff, and it's very niche, high risk, high reward business. We coupled this new product that we're taking, excuse me, taking on into our existing business, which is ultra fast surge arrester.

04:46

So we're trying to fast surge arrester. Gotcha Go ahead,

04:50

yep. So basically, we're trying to create a new business unit on a relationship that I've had with a manufacturer for the past 14 or 15. Years called advanced fusion systems out of Newtown, Connecticut.

05:04

What makes define ultra fast, as opposed to super fast, or fast?

05:15

Well, it's faster than the Road Runner. First of all, yeah, okay. Second of all, it actually starts operating in 300 nanoseconds, approximately. That's prior to the front of the wave of the lightning transients. So that's very ultra that's ultra fast. Yeah.

05:31

Why is it important?

05:33

It's important the fact that it will actually extend the life of lightning arrestor systems that are in place, which creates, let's call outs for the linemen, for blowing capacitor banks, closers, etc. That's that's a cat or operations expense savings by reducing those call outs, broken equipment, failed equipment. But it is actually designed to prevent electron to prevent electromagnetic pulse damage, particularly e1 waveform.

06:04

So once the arrestor does its job, does it? Does it require replacement? No. So it just provides that, that that interruption,

06:20

it shunts, if you will, the transient to Earth without interrupting,

06:26

right? Yeah. So it goes right to ground, yes.

06:29

And carries some of the load that the lightning arrester system may take if it's a lightning event, if it's an e1 event, the lightning arrester will not pick that up. This device is geared towards that it meets and exceeds the Mil Spec requirements by far.

06:49

Has it been deployed? Has it been put in the field? I

06:54

think we can say that during this podcast that yes, it's in couple national labs, and there's a couple confidential clients that have installed it in OEM switchgear.

07:06

What's the what's the typical age? I mean, it's relatively new. Is it new?

07:10

This is a technology that basically has hatched out of into its infancy last year.

07:21

And is there any limitations from a voltage perspective,

07:24

our low end is at 4000 volts, four KV, yeah. And upper end currently is at 18 KV, with working our way over the next 1618, months to hopefully 72 KV,

07:39

yeah, that'd be pretty a bigger size,

07:42

right? They get longer in length, not necessarily larger in diameter. That's right. That's right.

07:47

And easy to install. I mean,

07:50

if it's installed in an OEM switch gear or some type of a manufactured piece of equipment, that's a snap, if you will, because that'd be done in a shop prior to anything being energized. Every installation that would be a live installation out in the field, factory, plant, etc, that most of them, there's going to be many, many different varieties. So I'd say everyone has its own personality. And every approach you're going to have to have shut down, procedures in place, wraparounds, ideally, we would couple an installation like this in with other maintenance that's scheduled. Yeah,

08:25

yeah, that makes sense. But it's not just from a utility perspective. I think You briefly mentioned the fact that it, you know, I might have a substation, and my substation is feeding, and it's my substation I just, I just received power from the utilities, but I can have that particular product in my substation. If I'm a manufacturer and I, you know, or or still manufacturing, there's a lot of load there. Absolutely, it's not a problem.

08:53

It's the customer's choice at that point, not the utilities. Where do you see it going? I see this going everywhere in the grid that basically supplies power to every piece of medium voltage equipment that exists over the next 50 to 100 years. It's a long program, and we're just getting out of the gate.

09:13

Is there anything else similar to this out there? There

09:17

is a 15 KV device, I believe that it's about the size of a Volkswagen. Mars is about size of a Are you kidding me? Ours is about the size of a large coffee cup.

09:32

Yeah, the 15k Yeah. I mean, you get, you got a product on your what size is that product that it's on your desk,

09:40

three and a half inches in diameter, eight inches high, yeah, but

09:44

what's that for? That's

09:45

15k It's nothing, yeah. I mean, I could just a little bit larger than your out of the box, standard metal oxide, Bristol type of yeah, you can

09:54

stick it in a nose bag. That's not a problem, exactly. Yeah? Easy, easy. Wow. Yeah. So Kevin, if somebody's interested in this product some way, shape or form, what's the best way to get a hold of

10:08

you? You can go to NW signal.org, or call Kevin at four to 58021893,

10:15

are you out on LinkedIn? Yes, because I'll just have that link. That's fine. Are you active on that LinkedIn?

10:21

I need to, I need to refresh and Come on, put me out there. I'm specialized in EMP protection. You'll love it. Okay,

10:29

very good. All right, we're gonna have all the contact information for Kevin out on Industrial Talk. His product sounds fantastic. Look into it if you're in the world of energy and resilience and resiliency. There it is. Look them up, connect with them. All right, we're broadcasting from distribute tech Orlando, Florida. Is the location. It is something that you need to put on your calendar for next year if you're in the energy utility space. Yes, it is a must. Okay, we're going to wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned. We will be right back. Thanks, Scott.

11:01

You're

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listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

11:10

All right, that's a wrap. Kevin's his name NW signal is the company the event was distributek, and I got to tell you, if you're in that world, in the utility energy infrastructure space, you need to look into distribute tech, great collection of individuals and companies all focused on solving really big problems, big problems way above my pay grade. Most definitely, you'll have all the contact information for Kevin out on Industrial Talk, so reach out. I'm sure he would love a quick chat with you. All right, again, building a platform. You have a podcast, you have technology. You want to be on a podcast. You want greater amplification, you need to talk to me. Put it out on Industrial Talk. It's an easy, easy solution. We want you to succeed. Be bold. Be brave. Dare greatly. Hang out with Kevin. Change the world. We're going to have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned. You.