Meet New ETI Member Induction Innovations Inc.
By Bob Chabot - October 2013

We’re all somewhat familiar with the larger-sized member companies in the Equipment and Tool Institute. But the majority of ETI memberships are smaller companies. Recently, I visited with Tom and Steve Gough, father and son co-owners of Induction Innovations Inc. In addition to learning what products and services their company provided, I was curious about what made them unique, why they were drawn to join ETI, and especially how membership had benefited them so far.

I first met Steve at ToolTech 2013 (TT). In particular, we both participated in all of the new discussions groups the event’s agenda offered. The enthusiasm was obvious, as was the quest to learn more, in particular, building relationships with other ETI members and the automakers.

Steve shared a little about the company, and more about the deep respect he had for his Dad, before and after joining the business. The influences, the values, lessons learned …some easily, others the hard way, given how family business is at times. I asked Steve to share one of the values; he volunteered the phrase “more, better, sooner,” which he explained had been a catch phrase passed down through generations of entrepreneurs in his family.

Like any business, sometimes the learning comes easy, sometimes not. And while there were some trials and tribulations along the way, the foundation of implicit trust they shared enabled them to work through these challenges — as business partners and as father/son — to develop a solid working relationship and grow their business.

At STW, Tom attended all the Collision Repair Group (CRG) sessions, while Steve participated in all the ETI Mechanical Systems Group (MSG) sessions. We met for coffee one evening, where I interviewed them.

ETI: How did you each get into the induction business?

Steve: “I joined the business when I was about 15 years old and worked part time while going to school, before switching to fulltime when I was 19.  I didn’t walk into a business that was established or stagnant. I did become a part of something that was very capable of growing. Dad and I both shared this viewpoint. I wasn’t trying to come in to change everything, because I knew I needed time to understand the broader scope and potential of the business. What is cool to me looking back is how both my Dad and I were trying to figure out how to grow it together.”

Tom: “My fulltime job while Steve was growing up was as a technician in a local collision repair shop, but I also worked at our local Fire Department. The guy I was typically teamed-up with during drills at the fire station was an electrical engineering consultant. One time he was leaving drills early and I asked him where he was going. He said he had an induction heating project he was working on. Induction heating sparked my interest because of my father, who was a dental technician, had used induction casting machines to melt down metal and inject it into the dental molds. My teammate suggested I stop by, so I did and he showed me what he was doing.”

“When I saw what he was doing, I began to think about how to apply it to my everyday work in the body shop to make things go better. One of my first applications of induction heating was with metal bond adhesives. We were just starting to use them, but they took a long time to cure before you could send something to be painted. This engineer built me a prototype heater based on the needs I described and my knowledge in the industry. I didn’t use it right away on customer vehicles; rather, I began doing some research and testing. I called 3M and Lord Fusor — two major adhesive manufacturers. I learned more about the attributes of adhesives, then began testing tabs and experimenting with how much heat it took to cure without compromising the adhesive bonds.”

ETI: So you were shortening the curing time? Where did that take you?

Tom: “Yes, I learned that induction heat shortened the curing time. I then took the prototype tool to the body shop, to see what else I could learn. I did a door skin repair with it, in which I monitored the heat to make sure the repair was complete. It worked out great. I was able to send that door to be painted right away.”

“I then began using the induction heat tool for different applications. For instance, I wondered if I could take off pin striping, so I pulled off some of a vehicle using the tool. Not only did the induction heat tool remove it faster, the adhesive stayed with the stripe, which meant the repair required less clean-up time. Then I started doing body side moldings, followed by hail-caused dent jobs, and other repairs.”

“More tasks were able to be done, but faster and in many cases better. For example, I once had to take two quarter glass windows out of an Impala. The book time was two hours per window. It took me three minutes to remove each window, followed by 15 minutes to prep and reinstall each of them. Bottom line: I did the entire Impala window job in approximately 30 minutes, but got paid for four hours of book time. That’s good math for a collision technician. So, I started thinking, you know, we need to do something with this tool and the technology.”

ETI: You’ve both mentioned the phrase “more, better, sooner.”  Where did your testing lead you?

Steve: “My Grandpa owned his own dental lab. He always had this sign on a wall in his lab that read: ‘More. Better. Sooner.’ I’ve always felt that phrase stuck with me and helped to shape me, because my Dad always repeated it to me growing up too. It was not only a family value; it became a business value for us too. Those three words became a mantra that got us both through some tough times in our personal lives and later as we grew our business. In particular, it is a principle that has always inspired us to continually try to improve the repair process.”

“Let me share one example about how growing up and working with my Dad impacted me. After 28 years as a body man, Dad wanted out of the collision shop. He just didn’t like doing it any more, as he felt undervalued yet overworked — even though he had learned to do more, better, sooner — especially with the prototype. I listened to all the stories he would tell, such as his employer saying ‘You can’t make any more money Tom [who was on commission]; you’re already making more money than me, so you’re done for the day.’ I admire so much of his courage to begin the business and respect him for being true to his values and his desire to help shops and technicians be more cost-effective.”

Tom: “You see, everybody in a shop can win if they use proper service/repair information, understand how to use the induction heat tool properly and obtain training over time to maintain their competencies. Part of what we do at Induction Innovations is encouraging folks to do just that. We opened our business in 2000, and began going to NACE shows that same year to demonstrate our tool and get the word out about how it could help technicians in both collision and mechanical facilities.”

ETI: Describe how induction heat works?

Steve: “It’s much the same thing with nuts and bolts, whether for a collision or mechanical repair. The main difference, being the re-usability of the parts removed. It would be nice to reuse nuts and bolts if possible, but too much heat can change the molecular structure of the hardware and compromise its integrity. There is no reason (in most cases) to heat hardware red hot when trying to remove. We do it in our advertisements and marketing to visually demonstrate the product’s power. In our training we show technicians how to safely and effectively use induction heat. For instance, we call out for five or six seconds in our videos, then pull it off, and demonstrate how this procedure can be used multiple times, until enough expansion has occurred for removal. Our other mechanical applications include pulling and installing bearings, removing crankshaft bolts, removing exhaust manifold bolts, oxygen sensors, and even releasing thread-locked compounds on seatbelt bolts, which given the many seatbelt recalls in recent years, has been a real cost and timesaver.”

“Essentially, induction heat works on anything that gets rusted, corroded or has a thread lock compound on it (some thread lock compounds create a bond nearly as strong as a weld). To understand how induction heating works, imagine a metal magnet with a north and a south pole that switches polarity back and forth. Our tools do this about 60,000 times per second; each time the molecules in the ferrous metal want to realign themselves within the polar fields. Do it fast enough, you create friction and heat, which loosens the bonds or corrosion. Currently, body shops, salvage yards, and mechanical shops comprise the bulk of our business. We’ve recently become involved on other industry segments that require larger, more powerful induction heat tools, including some automakers. Our company competes in segments where solvents and torches are used, but our alternative technology is faster, less invasive and safer than that of our competitors.”

ETI: Are there any constraints or challenges with new steels, glass and other materials used in vehicle construction mixes that your customers need to be cognizant of?

Tom: “Yes, there are some new steels and metals you don’t want to heat up at all. It’s important that technicians check OEM procedures and guidelines before beginning a repair. For instance, collision technicians may be limited in regards to how long a metal can be heated, how high a temperature it can be heated to, or how many times it can be heated. In other cases, such as working on body side panels, induction heat is ideally-suited. Typically with body side panels, one is removing decals, graphics and body side moldings but not heating it enough to do any kind of change to the metal. You only want temperatures to get high enough so the adhesive comes off with the decal or graphic rather than be left on the vehicle.”

“When it comes to structural glass, such as certain windshields, technicians need to exercise caution. You don’t want to be heating up a pinch weld if it’s not recommended by the automaker, because you may change the molecular structure, depending on whatever the associated metal alloy is.”

“With windshields, there is an industry debate on the proper preparation for the reinstall. Some say a thin bead of urethane should be left on the pinch weld, with the belief that the new urethane will bond better to existing urethane. Others would say all adhesive is removed to bare metal and the proper metal prepping procedure is performed. We have investigated and found that often the same urethane that is used at the manufacture isn’t the same type/brand/mix that is found in the aftermarket. It’s best to contact the OEM for their official stance on the year and model of the vehicle in question. If all the urethane should be removed, our product will do just that.

ETI: When did you join ETI? More specifically, why did you join ETI? In other words, what was the draw for you?

Steve: “Induction Innovations joined ETI in January 2013. An industry friend, Zach Parker (ETI board member and Redline Detection CEO) spoke very favorably of ETI and encouraged us to join.

“The first ETI event I attended was Tool Tech 2013 in San Diego, CA. I was more interested than Dad in ETI membership at first, largely due to our different roles in our company. I’ve progressed more into sales and marketing, whereas Dad is more focused on the R&D and the business management side of the business.”

“We both attended STW 2013 in Troy, MI. Dad was impressed by ETI and saw the potential it had to help move our business forward. He said, ‘After STW, I’m definitely going to Winter Tech Week this December. No matter what, no one is stopping me.’ If possible, I’ll be going as well.”

ETI: Such is the power of trusted referrals. What value do you hope to realize from ETI membership?

Steve: “We also became interested in ETI because another of our industry friends, Tim Morgan (ETI CRG chairman and Spanesi Americas managing director), spoke very highly of ETI and its potential to help grow our business. In particular, he’s well-versed and successful in building working relationships with automakers, including getting his company’s products into OEM-approved equipment and tool programs for OEM-certified collision facilities. That intrigued us a lot. They are the foundation of the repair process, especially in determining standards and specifications for the tool and equipment required to service and repair their brands. So we want to learn more about how we might get our products into these markets and to better understand the role that the OEMs play in the tool market.”

Tom: “We have previously under-estimated the value the OEMs play in the repair process. We’re working to grow those relationships now.
 
“I also believe that if you can just walk away with one new idea at an event, you can consider the event successful. Steve’s excitement about what he learned in the ‘Building OEM relationships’ discussion group at ToolTech impressed me and spurred me into attending STW. Going and meeting with the OEMs and more fully understanding that many technicians in our industry start at dealerships where they get much of their training before moving into the independent aftermarket — ideas we need to pursue began to become clear to me.”

“Attending STW helped me to gain insight into how technicians learn the processes from the OEMs. Really the only standards and specifications we have in the industry right now comes from the OEMs. They’re not communicating directly to the technicians, but they talk to ETI. That’s a dialogue we need to be part of.”

ETI: Can you share a specific example of how being at an ETI event as a member is driving your business forward?

Tom: “I attended all of the CRG sessions at STW as a participant, I was able to meet and talk with a number of OEM collision specialists. Of particular benefit was meeting the key service engineering collision repair contacts who ran the OEM collision testing labs — folks like Randy Boyd at General Motors Co., Doug Craig at Chrysler Group LLC and Gerry Bonanni at Ford Motor Co.” 

“These are the very folks I need to meet. Like them, I’ve seen cars naked (structurally). And being in R&D, we speak the same language. For them to invite questions from us anytime matters. So does the dialogue we began about the benefits of using induction heating right in their own collision repair test labs. That wouldn’t have happened without membership in ETI and the generous help from ETI members.”

ETI: What about you, Steve … In your role in sales and marketing, how has ETI membership and attendance at ETI events brought value to you?

Steve: “One of the first impressions ETI made on me after joining was a comment made by Jessie Korosec, ETI marketing manager. She said, ‘ETI membership can transform a business. But you only get out of membership what you put in.’ That is important to us, especially as a new ETI member. We want to be team players, so I’ve joined the marketing committee of ETI as well.”

“This boils down to networking, which is a lot more valuable than people say. People underestimate it, but Tim made it a priority at my first event to take me to the side and say, ‘Just follow me around. I’ll introduce you to people.’ That impressed me.  So at the Marketing Committee I recommended this be a practice for all new members. Make ETI membership sticky. Pull new members in, introduce them to people, and show them where the value is for their business. Open their eyes to the possibilities early, then give them reasons to get involved instead of being more concerned about just themselves.”

“For example, like Dad mentioned, our company Induction Innovations, Inc. is looking to get on the approved tools and equipment lists for automakers. Tim has a lot of experience doing that and he is getting us involved in some things he’s working on. Another insight I’ve learned from our first two events is how to be effectively patient. We just have to keep at it. We’re still expanding our company right now and realize we need to develop or bring in someone whose primary responsibilities will include working those OEM relationships and showing them the benefits that working with our tools can provide. ETI provides viable opportunities to do just that.”
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