On Tuesday morning, I had the pleasure of attending a vendor appreciation event hosted by Cain Tubular at its facility at 310 Kirk Road in St. Charles. Now, I’ve been to local businesses for special events many times before, but I knew that this was something special when I was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before they would even let me in the room!

Cain Tubular is a locally owned and operated business that is housed in a non-descript building at the corner of Kirk Road and Illinois Avenue. On Tuesday, the company was being recognized by NASA and Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne for its effort in creating a special metal coil that will be used in the J-2x rocket engine that is being developed by NASA to power Ares rocket that will transport the Orion Spacecraft. Orion will replace the current space shuttle as the next crew vehicle for the USA space program.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) is the company that has been awarded the contract to develop the J-2X engine. Cain Tubular supplies its coil to a company called Arrowhead Global Solutions. Arrowhead then installs that coil in its product and supplies it to PWR.

It is so great to see a St. Charles-based company providing such an important product. The Cain brothers (John, Mike, and Bob) are continuing a tradition of excellence. They are the 3rd generation of Cains responsible for running the business and I learned that their grandfather also supplied components to NASA when he ran the business many years ago.

According to representatives of PWR, NASA looked at 11 other suppliers, and worked with 4 others, before finding success with Cain Tubular. The company worked for almost 2 years before it was able to perfect the coil that is required. The company had to meet very stringent design standards for this critical engine component. By way of example, Mike Cain told me that even a small leak in the coil would result in catastrophic failure and the loss of the entire engine and vehicle. In other words, perfection is not just something they had to strive for, it was a necessity.

Congratulations to John, Mike, and Bob Cain, the entire Cain family, and the Cain Tubular organization! I’m proud that you call St. Charles home.