Show notes
Giovan Scialdone, president of 3S Lift Americas, joins to discuss 30,000 Climb Auto System installs and a new lift-mounted rescue stretcher.
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Allen Hall: Gio, welcome back to the program.
Gio Scialdone: Hey, thanks, Allen.
Allen Hall: So a lot’s happened over the past year since we last spoke with you at 3S Lift. Yeah. And there’s all kinds of new technology and improvements and the- The expansion of the Climb Auto system in the United States is remarkable. Yeah. How many systems do you have installed in North America?
Gio Scialdone: Yeah, I appreciate that. I mean, it’s, it’s… The, the pride that we take in, in those numbers are, are serious. We, we feel, uh, a great responsibility to help technicians, to help our customers operate more, uh, more efficiently. We have 30,000 installed.
Allen Hall: Wow.
Gio Scialdone: So yeah, last year was a busy year. We installed close to 8,000, uh, in North America, so a bit in Canada as well.
Um, [00:01:00] yeah, it’s… And, you know, before we get into some more numbers too, a funny story for you, a Massachusetts native- Right … or lived in Massachusetts- Long time … for a period of time. Uh, Hoosac Wind Farm, you know the Hoosac Wind Farm. Oh, yeah, yeah,
Allen Hall: I can see it out my front door.
Gio Scialdone: This is what’s great about this industry and being at this conference.
Um, I ran into… At, at one point in time working for GE a long time ago, I was a site construction manager for Hoosac. I ran into my EHS safety manager, who I haven’t seen in 14 years-
Allen Hall: Wow …
Gio Scialdone: uh, who now works for another prominent, uh, company, uh, in the industry, and, uh, she remembered the name of my dog that- Really?
I used to take to the site as a- Oh,
Allen Hall: wow.
Gio Scialdone: So, uh, you know, it’s good to be here, see you, and see, see, you know, lots of former colleagues, so,
Allen Hall: you know. Well, it’s a small world in wind.
Gio Scialdone: It’s a very small world. And, you know, we’re, we’re a company that, um, you know, again, we, we, we have a unique product, and there, there are some other companies that are, um, also coming out with a product quite similar, and we, [00:02:00] we appreciate that competition.
Sure. In fact, I think, you know, we spend a lot of our time trying to, uh, sell our customers on the value that the ClimbAuto system is a need and not a nice to have, and I think having some competition with a similar ladder access product further, uh, maybe pushes that point to, to, to be true. So, um, you know, it’s good to be here and see some expansion in, in our little, uh, you know, ladder lift space.
Allen Hall: Well, I think it shows the work that 3S has done to demonstrate the value of that system. I remember several years ago, I think when I first talked to you, there wasn’t a lot of adoption, and you were… And the operators were thinking, “Do I really need this?” But the reality was that the technicians loved it.
They improved performance. They had technicians using those towers and wanted to work on those specific towers. Yeah. And, and then, uh, just kind of the flood happened. It, it was everybody was testing the [00:03:00] waters. You were basically installing test systems- Yeah … or sort of sample system to try it. Yeah.
Everybody loved it, and then boom, you’re up to 30,000 units.
Gio Scialdone: I, I think, I think a part of that too to add on is you, you have to have a quality product.
Allen Hall: Oh, sure. It has to work. For, for… It has to work. Right.
Gio Scialdone: That’s the most important thing. Yeah. Um- The th- the, the, the value and the function in theory makes sense to lots of people, but does it work and is it reliable?
And I think having been here nine years and, and, you know, the first three years we only had 500 units installed. Yeah. So it’s really the last three or four years that have expanded our, our installation base. And I think a lot of that is, you know, thank, you know, we’ve got a great team behind it. You know, we’ve got 70 technicians, and we’ve got a sales team, and an engineering team, and, um, you know, a project management team.
So we, we’ve, we’ve staffed up as, as you need to. But the product we’ve, we, we really believe has, um, you know, been our best [00:04:00] salesperson. You know, it takes some service. That’s one thing I wanted to, to let you know, too. You know, in the early days, we- a lot of our customers were servicing our lifts. Sure.
Right, yeah. And we still, um, uh, promote that if they would like to. Uh, annual inspection, you know, 30 minutes a year, um, that kind of pre-use inspection of one or two minutes before you ride it is- Sure … is, is, uh- Yeah, yeah … required. But now we’ve got a team of 20 to 25 technicians who their only job is to go around and, and service these lifts.
So- Wow … we’re proud now that, you know, the oldest lifts are nine years. Oh, wow. And they’re still working very, very well as designed. You know, no, no major correctives, no motor replacements. So, you know, stand behind the product and, and, you know, service it, and servicing our customers is really what we’re, we’re proud to, to, to show.
Allen Hall: Well, that was always the hard part early on. Um, my recollection was I could install this system, and yes, I could help my technicians, but am I fixing it, replacing it? The, the, the quality was the question mark at the moment.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah.
Allen Hall: [00:05:00] But you’ve really hammered that, and I think 3S has done a good job of mainta- maintenance and inspections and just delivering a quality product.
That’s why I think you’ve seen the growth as rapidly as you have, and the price point’s right, too.
Gio Scialdone: The price point has to be right. I think, you know, um, we’ve– we, we are offering some additional, let’s call them, like, support services. So we’ve got an online store where you can come and buy spare parts. You can buy every spare part that you need on our online store.
Allen Hall: Nice.
Gio Scialdone: You know, accessories are required, fall arresters and battery kits and things like that, that even if you’re an ISP or, or a third party, uh, not the owner per se, you, you need that, that, that equipment. In addition to the online store, we- we, last year we launched, uh, an online training academy. So what’s…
You know, it’s a very simple system to use. We’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. Used it.
Allen Hall: Yeah.
Gio Scialdone: Um, but we need to make sure as an industry and as a company that we take responsibility to make sure as, as best we can that every [00:06:00]person that uses this uses it appropriately and has the intelligence and the knowledge and skills to, um, troubleshoot basic things or perform safety evacuation features.
So we’ve got an online training, um, uh, academy that we launched last year, and that’s been going well too. So more information we feel is better, uh, for our customers, for our technicians. Sure. You know. Um, so that’s been fantastic to see a lot more activity and customer… Again, a really small, you know, $200 per, per training course, and the certificate’s good for two years.
You know, um, a robust course for an hour or two. It’s worth it.
Allen Hall: Well, it’s a reasonable price for an excellent product. Yeah. And that’s been the key for a long time. Yeah. Opening up the ability to get spare parts online, that’s huge. I know when you talk to operators, what’s the pain point? I have to call somebody- Yeah
somewhere far away to try to get a part. Sure. It’s gonna take six months to get it.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah.
Allen Hall: Getting it online is the way- Yeah … that they wanna do it. [00:07:00] So it’s a lot of smart moves to be the support part of, of that system.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah. We’ve come… I’m, I’m smiling because in Chicago, uh, maybe seven years ago, our, our first spill- spare parts process was-
uh, my office had a closet that I housed all the spare parts.
Allen Hall: Yeah.
Gio Scialdone: You know? And, and when I needed to ship out something, I put it in a box and gave it to the, to, like, the building secretary, you know? That’s how it worked. And now we’re, we’re a little more sophisticated than that. We’ve- Y- you got a
Allen Hall: massive organization
Gio Scialdone: behind it We’ve got a 40,000 square foot warehouse that we’re, we’re really proud of, and a great team behind it to perform the logistics and track everything and…
You know. So yeah, we’ve, we’ve come a long way, and our customers are helping us try to get better as well, you know. There’s still, there’s still a long way to go. Our objective as a company is to eliminate climbing, Alan. And it- And, and, and you know, I think there’s not much pushback, frankly.
Allen Hall: Not today.
Right? Three years ago, a lot of pushback.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah. Yeah. I think, um… And what I mean, too, is, like, I think- From a, uh, a [00:08:00] value perspective, there’s no pushback. There’s still a budget perspective. Sure. And I think the challenges we’re finding still are if you’re at a wind farm and you have blade issues or, or, or drive train issues, uh, you might need to spend your dollars there before you spend them on a lift, and we, we, we understand and respect that.
And so we’re working together with customers to try to come up with creative commercial solutions, be it, uh, you know, deferred payment models or multi-year, look at that as a, a capital cost plus some operational cost. Smart. Defer some of that capital, um, to, to sort of reduce that first year burden, right?
Allen Hall: Yeah. So- That’s the
Gio Scialdone: scary
Allen Hall: part, right? They, they… The lump sum- It’s a big budget item. Yeah … is always an item, and they, especially in today’s world where we got gearbox and blade issues, they don’t want to spend on something that’s not directly there because it’s the, that’s what- Yeah … produces power.
Gio Scialdone: Right.
Allen Hall: But technicians working on the turbines also produce power. That’s a great point.
Gio Scialdone: And
Allen Hall: you, and you need them, they go up and down- Yeah. That’s a good point … and sometimes you need them to go up and down a lot. Yeah. And if you don’t [00:09:00] wanna wear out those technicians, the, the lift is the way, the climb model system is the way to go.
Right. It just makes… In today’s world, not having it, you’re the odd one out because most sites have some, if not all the turbines with the climb model system.
Gio Scialdone: There’s a, a… It reminded me of a, I talked to a customer today who said, you know, lots of these sites are clustered with phases. Uh, this particular customer retrofitted, uh, one of the two phases at their site.
They’re split, let’s call it 50 turbines each or so, um, maybe two years ago, and then their struggle is they haven’t yet got the budget to do the second phase. Now, it’s the same group of
Allen Hall: technicians-
Gio Scialdone: Yeah … that work on both phases. So she, she explained to me that every morning when they go in and they kinda see which, which turbine they’re going to, there’s a, there’s a few of them going, “Yeah.”
And there’s a couple other ones that are like, “Ah,” you know? Yeah. So there’s a real like… And I th- and I believe, you know, while that’s kind of a, an anecdotal kind of funny story, there’s, there’s, there’s real objective measures that you [00:10:00] can look at to say that it is, it is- correlated, hard to prove causation, but likely that those technicians who are climbing are gonna be less efficient at the same task than those who are not climbing, right?
Yeah. And, and the customer knows that. And so, um, you know, we’ve gotten to that point as an industry that we’re, again, we’re not arguing the, the value too much anymore. That’s good. It’s more about finding the solution for the right, at the right time. Pre-repower, do we do it pro- post-repower? You know, those questions are being asked.
Um, you know, it makes more sense potentially, if you will repower in a year, to put that in that budget. Um, so we’re seeing lots of that activity, especially as the lead up to this July 4th, uh, sa- uh, start a construction repower- Right … cliff.
Allen Hall: Yeah. Are, are you getting a lot of inquiries about that? Like, we wanna book a contract, try to get before that July date?
Gio Scialdone: Yeah, look, one of the interesting things is, you know, to qualify for the PTC by [00:11:00] July 4th, you need to start construction.
Allen Hall: That’s right.
Gio Scialdone: Um, or, and you can do that in a couple different ways, right? Right. And we are having customers who are using our lifts as a start of physical work on site.
Allen Hall: Oh,
Gio Scialdone: that’s so smart.
So they’re installing lifts- To start that process and show a continuous effort on site. It’s on-site work. Yes, it is. Uh, we have, you know, pri- uh, PWA, prevailing wage apprentice- Right … qualified- Sure … technicians in our program, if that’s something that’s required- Yeah … which a lot of times it is- It is
nowadays on these, a lot of these sites. So, um, yeah, we’re offering both of those things to customers. It is an interpretation. There are some customers who aren’t, um, but, but there are, there are those that, that do see the lift as a great tool for them to start that, that clock.
Allen Hall: Right. So- Because the parts are there, you’re ready to go.
You can get them- Yeah … installed and- Yeah … unlike other components of a wind turbine- That might
Gio Scialdone: have longer lead time …
Allen Hall: that will have longer lead times. Right. If you’re doing main bearings or something of that sort- Right … it’s gonna be several months before you get those assets on site and can [00:12:00] start working them.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah. And you’ve got three months until July 4th,
Allen Hall: right? Right. You gotta go.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah, you gotta go.
Allen Hall: Right. And that- You gotta go … I think that’s, that’s the key to all this. Yeah. Boy, that, that’s genius. I’m, I’m glad that people- … are thinking outside the box.
Gio Scialdone: We are too. Our customers are creative.
Allen Hall: Yeah.
Gio Scialdone: And that’s good.
We’re happy to support that, at times.
Allen Hall: So there’s, there’s some new technology at 3S in- involving evacuation and- Yeah … you know, the, one of the most, uh, critical pieces of being a technician is working safe, but occasionally things happen. Mm-hmm. And there’s a lot of ways to get technicians from the nacelle downtower.
Some of them involve tossing them over side and roping them down, which can be kind of extreme, honestly. Mm-hmm. And a, a lot of technicians do get hurt in not necessarily life-threatening ways- Right … but in ways where it makes it really hard to kind of get them up and down- Safely, yeah … the, the tower safely, right.
So 3S has been thinking about this for a while, and now you have a, a new product.
Gio Scialdone: We do. We have a rescue stretcher, uh, which has been in development for about a year or [00:13:00] so. We’ve tested it in the field. Um, yeah, the, the climb onto system with all its functions, uh, has not been a rescue system. Right. Right?
Um, so what, what we’ve been doing is if, if there is an incident in the tower, you’re utilizing a, a, a, one of the many rescue devices that are in the industry. Sure. Now, w- with the stretcher, uh, this is a, a device that attaches to the ClimbAuto System and uses the ClimbAuto System to safely bring the person down.
Um, it can be installed by, with one, uh, rescuer. So one person can fix this to the rail. It has pulley, uh, systems to bring the person up onto and attached to the ClimbAuto System, and then send down. Now, so then you’re, you’re, you’re immobilized, right? So we secure your head, your feet, your body. Um, and to your point earlier, yes, it’s in, in the event that an injury occurs [00:14:00] and you have, let’s call it some time, 10 to 15 minutes of setup time, ’cause that’s what it will take- Sure
then this is a great product. And the idea would be, you know, one per truck, similar to a rescue device. Um, you know, and then, you know, you can, can get it up and down the tower pretty easily. It’s, it’s light. It, the package is like a, it’s like a tent bag. It folds up into, like, a bag of a tent, if you picture that.
Um, it maybe weighs, like, 15 pounds. It’s quite light. Oh, that’s good. Yep, yep. You know, ’cause there’s no long rope, right? So there’s no, like, hundred-meter rope that you need, which is the, the heavy stuff. Right. Um, and, you know, so you’re using the lift. So the, the weight of the, the system, the stretcher itself, is quite light.
So we’re excited. We’ve got a few customers that have demoed it. And, uh, yeah, we’re, we’re, we’re looking to continue to improve the, the, the, the features that we offer. Well,
Allen Hall: yeah. If, if there’s 30,000 ClimbAuto Systems out there- Mm … there should be these rescue kits along in the trucks- Yeah … because you just don’t know.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah.
Allen Hall: Right? And guys get hurt.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah.
Allen Hall: They [00:15:00] dislocate their shoulders. They’re dislocating their knees. Yeah. It, it’s a hard task. It is. Uh, you used to climb and do that job. It is. You know that- It is … there’s, there’s things that happen uptower that it makes it hard to get down.
Gio Scialdone: You know, I remember doing some training w- where a lot, I mean, we all have, at some point, maybe done some rescue training and, you know, if you’re in a traditional uh, auto descent or sort of rescue device, you may be banging against the tower wall or the ladder- Yep
potentially causing further injury. The benefit of this system is, is that, you know, you’re stable on the lift as you go down. Um, so yeah, it’s a little, um… We, we feel is gonna be helpful f- for the sites that have, for sure, climb auto systems, and again- … it’ll take some training.
Allen Hall: Sure.
Gio Scialdone: Right? Sure. It’ll take some training to, to…
Just like any, any rescue device will take. Um, but we, we see some value in the future that, again, it’s adding… It’s another tool, uh, for customers- Yeah … to consider to keep their people safer.
Allen Hall: Yeah.
Gio Scialdone: You know? So.
Allen Hall: I, I, I- Yeah. I see a lot more operators now being very proactive about safety.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah.
Allen Hall: And if I can have a simple tool- Yeah
that [00:16:00] makes life easier just in case, ’cause things happen, and you wanna be ready for it, something in, in the back of the truck makes infinite sense and is a, a smart way to handle it. Because the thing about tower heights today, we’re above 100 meters on a lot of towers.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah.
Allen Hall: And that’s a long way to get lifted down.
Speaker: That’s
Gio Scialdone: true. Yeah. That’s a, it’s a… And, and, you know, and if you’re in a condition, a wind condition where it-
Allen Hall: Which is where these
Gio Scialdone: turbines
Allen Hall: are,
Gio Scialdone: yeah … towers sway, yeah. Then, then it’s- It’s- … even harder and need multiple people. You know, so again, in these remote areas where more and more turbines are being located as new construction, m- way more remote, uh, y- your, your, the next team of two technicians may be a, an hour away.
Probably, yes. Right? Worst case, it could be an hour away. Yeah. Oh,
Allen Hall: yeah.
Gio Scialdone: And so as a team of two, you know, to be able to rescue you and safely bring you down, it could be critical. It could be critical. It
Allen Hall: will be.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah. Yeah, because there’s not gonna be a third or fourth person to come assist us
Allen Hall: for an hour,
Gio Scialdone: you know?
So yeah, it’s an exciting… You know, [00:17:00] we, we’re, we’re trying to do, you know, uh, add-ons to the product to, uh, you know… We, we’ve modified some things over the years. We’ve got a new battery kit style, uh, to improve functionality. Clip-on battery as opposed to a plug-in. Um, you know, we’ve added a lot of different safety features over the years, like, um, uh, simultaneous handle switches.
Right, yeah. So, you know, we’re, we’re trying to avoid, uh, a misuse of, of, uh, one hand at a time or no hands. Um, so there’s, there’s lots of features that we have, uh, added and also are able to, when we go service these t- towers- Bring the add-on at no cost if we’re performing the service for the customer. So we’re gonna upgrade your software, so to speak- Sure
to the newest and latest, greatest software, um, so that, you know, you can be safer than, than you were maybe a few years ago.
Allen Hall: Oh, yeah. But that’s why you buy a 3S Climboto system. Ouch. Is because you know that those upgrades are coming. Yeah. And they’re- Yeah. You guys are not sitting still. You don’t have- No
you hadn’t device- No … [00:18:00] created a device 10 years ago and haven’t changed it. Yeah. It’s evolved every single year- It has … that I’ve talked to you. Yeah. And every single year it’s safer, more reliable- Yeah … does more features, and the technicians love it.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah.
Allen Hall: Absolutely love it.
Gio Scialdone: I credit our, you know, our company is, is…
This is our, this is our, uh, our passion, right? So, like, we’ve, we’ve been in this business for, for 20-plus years. In the US, we’ve been in it for nine and, you know, we’re not, we’re, we’re not going anywhere. No. You know, notwithstanding, um, uh, any, any, any political issues, we’re gonna ride through, so, so is everybody here, you know?
Sure. Yeah. We’re, we’re, we’re in this and, you know, our mindset is, again, to eliminate climbing and, and do the best we can to keep people safer and have turbines run more efficiently.
Allen Hall: So if you’re an operator or a wind farm asset manager or site supervisor- Yeah … at a, at a wind farm and you don’t have the Climboto system yet Who do you call?
Where do you go to get started?
Gio Scialdone: Yeah, you can, you can definitely get us on the [00:19:00]website. You know, there’s a Get Info button that still goes directly to me if you’re gonna say, “Hey, can I get a quote on this?” So, you know, we’ve got five salespeople. Uh, you can certainly ask your management team because there’s a l- strong likelihood that we’ve been in touch with them.
We, we visit sites. You know, we visited 200 sites last year. So our… We’re out. We, we… You know, if, uh, if we haven’t visited you, let us know. But, um, you know, yeah, you can definitely reach us on, on the web or, uh, you know, we’ve got a phone number as well on there, so.
Allen Hall: Yeah, it’s easy to reach out. Yeah. Just look up 3S Lift.
Climb Model System’s another quick way, and if you Google that you’ll get to the 3S Lift website, and you can find all the cool features, and, and the new devices, and you can find your parts and everything you want right there. It’s, it’s amazing the growth and, and the, and the, uh, adoption of that system.
It’s, it’s great to hear. It’s one of those things that when it’s a real success story. Yeah. And I, I know you’re, you’re really close to it of course.
Gio Scialdone: Yeah, I know.
Allen Hall: Yeah. But from the outside looking in, it’s [00:20:00] amazing.
Gio Scialdone: We’re proud of
Allen Hall: the team. 500 turbines to 3,000, that’s a lot.
Gio Scialdone: It is. We’re proud of the team. I’m, I’m grateful to the customer base that, that have seen this, this value, you know, and recognize it.
Um, and you know, not only for the soft sell, that it helps people and the morale, and, you know, there is a, a, a, a harder to measure injury improvement factor.
Allen Hall: Yeah.
Gio Scialdone: Um, but, but there’s absolutely some objective measures. We have sites that before the lifts were installed were at 95% availability, and now they’re at 96.2.
Now, correlation and causation aren’t the same thing, but we, we believe, and we means the industry I think at this point, especially to see competitors come in, I think that further, uh, drives home the idea that this is the right thing to do, to stop climbing and, and help your t- technicians be more efficient, effective.
So yeah, we’re, we’re proud of it and, um, you know, we’re looking forward to being here for another nine years.
Allen Hall: Absolutely. Yeah. Gio, so good to see you. Congratulations on everything. Thanks, Allen. And yeah, [00:21:00] good luck this year. I know you’re gonna have a l- a lot more growth, so- Thanks … congratulations.
Gio Scialdone: Appreciate the time.