Fiberglass Specialities, a manufacturer of rail switch heater covers and industrial tanks, last year bought Hot Switch Heating Systems, which is taking the company’s rail business to a new level.

“It’s a neat product, and it’s going to have a good impact, hopefully, internationally,” said Shane Kunnanz, who owns and operates the business with his wife, Meagan.

Last fall, the City of Minot approved a forgivable loan of $215,385 from the MAGIC Fund to enable Hot Switch to take advantage of a Bank of North Dakota PACE loan to establish the product assembly operation in Minot. The goal is to create three jobs in two years.

Meagan Kunnanz said the company not only added one employee so far but has been working to shift the manufacturing of the control cabinets from Kentucky to a Grand Forks manufacturer.

Fiberglass Specialties employee Bryan Solberg sands a circular fiberglass piece that will serve as an end of a tank as he works in the company’s Minot manufacturing plant Wednesday.

“We’re trying to make sure that we have everything as local as we can get it,” she said.

As the only fiberglass cover manufacturer in North America, Fiberglass Specialties does business with railroads across the country and in Canada. In addition to the Class 1 railroads, the New York City Metro Transit Authority other passenger rails utilize its products.

Some of those railroad customers mentioned their interest in a package deal for heaters and covers. The Kunnanzes investigated options to add a heater product and found something intriguing. A pair of inventors in Jacksonville, Florida, had developed an induction heating system for rail switches that they had been manufacturing since 2016 for a limited customer base.

“We were curious to start with because it’s such a niche market that we’re already in with the railroad heating switches,” Shane Kunnanz said. “We were just questioning, ‘Why haven’t we heard of this? Is it that new? Is it a flop? What’s the deal with it?’ So we just called them up, kind of got the backstory on it, and at the end of the conversation, asked if they would ever be interested in selling it. They said, ‘Yeah, I think we would.'”

The sale closed last August.

A Hot Switch Heating Systems control unit, shown at left, feeds electricity through a cable to each of the individual heads attached magnetically to the rail track, firing up their induction coils that transfer heat to the rail.

Shane Kunnanz explained several companies make switch heaters, but the two heat-transfer styles commonly available don’t have the energy efficiency of Hot Switch’s induction system. Induction heating generates an oscillating magnetic field that heats the rail with very minimal energy loss from the electrical source, he said.

“It’s a natural next step in the evolution, especially the world we live in now that is so conscious of your energy consumption and making sure you are energy efficient and utilizing energy the right way,” Shane Kunnanz said.

He added another advantage of induction heating is it doesn’t have the moving parts of a hot-air blower. It consists of electricity running through a coil.

“There’s not a whole lot that can go wrong with it, which is one of the beauties of it. It is just simple. It is dependable and it’s made to last,” he said.

“We just felt like it was the perfect fit and it’s the perfect combination with our covers, also. So, we can really offer our customers a great package that we really stand by,” Meagan Kunnanz said,

A row of tanks manufactured at Fiberglass Specialties are ready for shipping Wednesday.

They brought the manufacturing operation from Florida into one of the five buildings on Fiberglass Specialties’ property just east of Minot along U.S. Highway 2.

This past winter, Fiberglass Specialties had Hot Switch test sites with a number of rail companies. The Kunnanzes hope to get enough solid results to encourage sales and require more employees next winter.

Their booth was popular at the Railway Interchange, the largest railway exhibition and educational conference in North America, last October in Indianapolis, they said.

“When we were in this process, we talked to a lot of different people, ran ideas by different people,” Meagan Kunnanz said. From family to the banking community, Minot Area Chamber EDC and the City of Minot, support for taking the major step of incorporating Hot Switch into Fiberglass Specialties’ business line was encouraging.

“The people that you expect to give you that honest feedback, they were all positive about it and thought that it was a great product. It also just reassured us that we were doing the right thing,” Shane Kunnanz said.

Murrey Hill had started Fiberglass Specialties in 1987 to manufacture fiberglass covers for the heaters used by railroads. The covers ensure the switches where trains change tracks don’t get built up with snow and ice that can interfere with operation and cause safety problems. The covers help keep the heat contained in the switch area rather than dispersing in the atmosphere.

In 2001, Meagan Kunnanz’s parents, Terry and Cindy Domres, purchased the business. In 2008, the business began to make tanks for the oil field from fiberglass, known for its longevity and corrosion-resistance. Since then, manufacturing has expanded to include liquid fertilizer tanks for the agriculture industry and fire suppression system tanks. The type of resin varies for different tank uses.

“Basically any bulk, liquid, above-ground storage, we have a resin that can make a tank,” Shane Kunnanz said.

Starting with 12-foot diameter tanks of up to 20,000 gallons, the company in 2013 added 15-foot diameter tanks with a capacity up to 42,000 gallons. Fiberglass Specialties also makes fiberglass accessory buildings that are sold and shipped around the country.

Shane Kunnanz entered the business in 2017, which is when he and Meagan began to purchase the company.

Meagan Kunnanz said her husband has learned the Hot Switch product forward and backward, but it is nice to have the developers only a phone call away for advice over the next three years as part of the purchase agreement.

Going into the future, they also feel good about the employee base that is central to the company’s success, Meagan Kunnanz said. Some of their 17 employees have been long term and all are like family, she said.

“Everybody just takes such pride in what they do,” she said. “They send out a quality product, and it shows that they take pride in it. It’s kind of neat. It’s just a good deal to go to work every day and see that.”