July 2018

86 87 THE STEEL TANK INSTITUTE/STEEL PLATE FABRICATORS ASSOCIATION SETTING THE STANDARDS T he Steel Tank Institute/Steel Plate Fabricators Association (STI/SPFA) is a trade association repre- senting fabricators of steel construction products and their suppliers. Its member companies produce steel storage tanks, field erected water and industrial (oil and chemical) stor- age tanks, pressure vessels and heat ex- changers, and pipe and pipelines. Their customers are from the petrochemical, power generation, food, pharmaceutical, fuels, wastewater, and water transmis- sion industries. “The Association was formed in 1916, by a group of companies that saw value in joining together,” says Executive Vice President,Wayne Geyer, explaining the genesis of the original Steel Tank Insti- tute. “It was a Midwestern group– a lot of them were from the State of Illinois - involved in boilers and the steel fab- rication business. Two of those com- panies continue to be members today, 102 years later, which I find extremely impressive. One of them is Chicago Boiler in Gurnee, Illinois; another is Morrison Bros. Co. in Dubuque, Iowa. Morrison Brothers used to be a steel tank fabricator. Now they provide accessories for steel tank fueling systems.” In 1933, the Steel Plate Fabricators Association was formed. “Steel welding came into force as a technology in the 1930s, and especially as World War II approached,” Geyer recounts. “They also represented steel fabricated products, but they were more involved with the water industry and with heavy steel wall vessels – sometimes over an inch thick, subject to high pressures and temperatures.” In 2004, the Steel Plate Fabricators Association joined with the Steel Tank Institute to increase the industry’s strength and impact for fabricators of THE INSTITUTE/STEEL PLATE STEEL TANK FABRICATORS ASSOCIATION AT A GLANCE THE STEEL TANK INSTITUTE/STEEL PLATE FABRICATORS ASSOCIATION WHAT: A trade association repre- senting fabricators of steel con- struction products and their sup- pliers WHERE: Lake Zurich, Illinois WEBSITE: www.steeltank.com