1900

Birth of a Legacy

In 1900 J. Hall Taylor founded American Spiral Pipe Works in Chicago, IL. Shortly thereafter Mr. Taylor opened a forge shop in nearby Cicero, IL. At this facility, the renamed Taylor Forge & Pipe Works developed the ANSI flange standards we still use today. Taylor Forge grew over those early decades adding facilities across the U.S. and Canada.

1950

More than the Center of the Country

In 1952, J. Hall Taylor’s son, Edward Taylor, acquired a small maintenance and supply facility in Paola, Kansas from The Fluor Corporation. This would eventually become the headquarters for Taylor Forge Engineered Systems. Taylor Forge became known for specialty forged components for the aerospace industry while at the same time the Paola plant was producing high pressure gas storage vessels for most of the NASA facilities around the country. The work in Paola would lead to the development and publishing of the ASME Section VIII Division 2 portion of the pressure vessel code. Also, in the middle of this century, the extrusion process was developed by Taylor Forge in Kansas to supplement their welded fitting line of products.

After the passing of Mr. Taylor, Gulf & Western, a New York conglomerate, purchased all of Taylor Forge as it existed in the late 1960’s. This was done to take advantage of the growing nuclear industry around the U.S. Taylor Forge had become a critical supplier to the commercial nuclear market.

1984

Opportunity Knocks

Upon the death of the founder & Chairman of Gulf & Western, the entire Energy Products group of companies was sold. Gary Kilkenny was the president of Taylor Forge and he was given the opportunity to acquire the Engineered Products division based in Kansas which also included the Greeley, KS facility. Gary with his partner Tom Walsh took the Kansas operation private and renamed it Taylor Forge Engineered Systems (TFES). A series of opportunities presented themselves which allowed TFES to purchase the navy nuclear assets of Crane Midwest and enter the navy nuclear propulsion program in 1990 and later acquire similar assets from Tube Turns. In 1995 TFES purchased the assets of Progressive Metals in the Houston area and in 1997 they purchased the Humco company in Garnett, Kansas.

2000

Leading an Industry

Today, under the leadership of Mike Kilkenny, TFES operates both Paola and Greeley facilities in Kansas and have added a plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the design and manufacture of shell & tube heat exchangers. With the acquisition of Vortex Technology out of Canada, TFES has enhanced its role of providing unique separation solutions to the gas processing industry. TFES continues to lead the world in the areas of large gas-liquid separation solutions; material & welding technology; high pressure equipment fabrication; and innovative fabrication techniques & equipment.