Hot Stuff: Why Wabtec’s Heat Transfer & Energy Solutions Group Is One of the Company’s Coolest Success Stories

High-intensity industrial processes, power-generation systems, and large engines – whether for locomotives or mining trucks – share something in common: they produce a lot of heat.

Removing heat from these mission-critical systems, whether by cooling it or capturing it for re-use, is essential to their long-term performance. And doing so in the most efficient way possible is nothing short of a full-time obsession for one of the fastest-growing and most under-the-radar teams at Wabtec.

Welcome to the world of Heat Transfer & Energy Solutions (HTES), perhaps Wabtec’s coolest group, one with a pedigree in engineering excellence, a broad and growing portfolio of best-in-class products, and a mission to be a solution provider for industry partners and customers, whether that means selling a single radiator or designing a $15 million plant-wide heat-transfer system.

Keeping it cool: ‘Wabtec inside’

“Over time, we have assembled a truly enviable product portfolio, developed by the world’s leading radiator, heat exchange, and heat transfer brands, all under the Wabtec umbrella – a true position of strength to address the many markets we serve,” says Brandon Kameg, Vice President, Components at Wabtec. “But for those not intimately familiar with thermodynamics, the best way to understand what we do is to know our focus is on cooling engines or systems that get extremely hot, or helping our customers capture and re-use that heat as part of their industrial processes.”

And business is booming. According to Kameg, who began managing the group in 2020, HTES has grown from $170 million to ~$500 million in annual revenues, with a long-term goal of becoming a $1 billion business unit.

So, what’s driving growth?

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Reputational excellence is a good place to start. In mining, for example, Wabtec’s MESABI® radiators are a cooling element of choice among the world’s leading mining-truck OEMs. In fact, many of the truck fleets at the largest mines in the world are equipped with MESABI® radiators, which are known for their dependability in tough environmental conditions, such as high altitudes and scorching heat.

This story of “Wabtec inside” extends across a host of other industries, from genset OEMs and packagers to locomotive, truck, and oil & gas rig manufacturers: wherever industrial engines are firing, Wabtec cooling solutions are sure to be found maintaining equilibrium.

“The best of the best continue to choose Wabtec engine cooling and large power solutions to enhance their offerings,” observes Jim Spakauskas, Director of Sales, Wabtec Heat Transfer & Energy Solutions. “That’s happening both because of the legacy expertise of our original Thermal Transfer group and the incredible additions we have made to our portfolio through the acquisition of market leaders like Bearward, Bloom Engineering, L&M Radiator (MESABI® brand), Unifin, and Young Touchstone.”

The HTES team is riding this momentum into a new customer market that is transforming the power and computer industries: data centers. The epitome of an “always on” resource, data centers require massive amounts of backup generation to ensure the 24x7x365 needs of consumers are met without fail. And that backup requires elite engine cooling solutions available from Wabtec.

Power play

While Kameg would gladly walk any customer through the growing catalog of Wabtec radiators and other engine cooling solutions, he’s equally proud of the industrial-scale custom solutions his team develops for the large power and industrial markets.

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“We have single tube, sectional, and bar and plate radiators for the mining industry, data centers, and larger industrial applications, which is just our way of saying that no matter what kind of engines our customers have, we have the right engine cooling solutions for them,” offers Kameg. “The same goes for our work in the large power market, but there we face the additional challenge of having to develop highly customized, large-scale solutions for our customers.”

For example, Aymium, a producer of renewable biocarbon products, contacted the Heat Transfer & Energy Solutions group to explore the development of a heat recovery system for a future plant.

That conversation began four years ago.

“Engineering a heat recovery solution for a yet-to-be-built biocarbon production facility wasn’t a matter of picking a product from a catalog; it was a creative, consultative process that drew on years of experience and systems-design excellence to bring Aymium’s concept to life,” observes Kameg.

Today, that “concept” has $210 million in financing behind it and a target date for completed construction later in 2025. The Williams, California facility is designed to convert waste biomass into high purity biocarbon, a renewable replacement for coal in both power generation and steel production. Wabtec will provide large gas-to-gas heat exchangers to capture and re-use heat generated by Aymium’s production process to enhance its safety and sustainability.

“Our work with Aymium highlights the way we interact with customers across the large-power and industrial segment: we act as a resource, suggest solutions, and evolve with them over time as their innovative production processes come to life,” reflects Kameg. “We view this as a journey, one that requires an upfront investment of our time and expertise that results in a highly technical, and often custom-designed solution, one that we hope will be carried forward as they roll out additional plants.”

This approach has worked with many of Wabtec’s industrial customers. According to Spakauskas, HTES’ partnership with an innovator in sustainable steel manufacturing has led to the use of advanced Wabtec heat recovery systems in over 20 of its plants worldwide. The latest features Wabtec technology playing a starring role in a new German plant’s planned transition to full hydrogen operations.

Hot synergies ahead

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Always looking for ways to add more value to its customers’ businesses and processes, Wabtec recently acquired Bloom Engineering. The company, which specializes in industrial heating applications, shares a number of customers with Wabtec, and its advanced technologies in burners and combustion systems, along with its renowned services in the aftermarket, combine to offer the perfect complement to HTES’ industrial heat transfer solutions.

Wabtec and Bloom Engineering share a vision for decarbonizing industrial processes, including steel production. This collaboration, along with the approximately 200 professionals added to the Wabtec family, will enable Wabtec to deliver a more comprehensive portfolio for customers worldwide and help them operate more efficiently.

No shortage of opportunities

Power generation, data centers, mining, industrial manufacturing, and global rail?

It’s hard to think of the HTES team playing in more markets that matter more both to the global economy and the conveniences of everyday life. And while the need for heat transfer solutions in these markets may not be obvious to most, it is to Kameg and his team, and provides great motivation.

“I think what sets our Heat Transfer & Energy Solutions portfolio apart is not just that we are always innovating, but also that we are doing so within the context of our customers’ engineered solutions,” concludes Kameg. “It’s gratifying to know our products play an important role in how our customers are solving big problems, such as producing green steel,  providing renewable energy to the masses, or delivering continuous power to the data center. It is equally rewarding to know that our radiators are keeping thousands of mining trucks around the world in continuous operation – no one wants to have to pop the hood in the middle of the jungle or on top of a mountain.”