Traveling crews · Data centers & cold storage · North Carolina
Industrial Welding in North Carolina
Sons of Thunder Welding runs a traveling, crew-based welding and fabrication team built for North Carolina's data-center cooling loops and cold-storage refrigeration builds. We come in as your specialty crew or mechanical-contractor overflow crew.
In short
We're a traveling industrial welding contractor that runs data-center and cold-storage mechanical scope in North Carolina, not an everyday local shop.
North Carolina has turned into one of the busiest mechanical-construction markets in the Southeast, and the work fits exactly what our crews do. Amazon Web Services is putting up to $10 billion into a 20-building data-center campus in Richmond County near Hamlet, the largest single capital project in state history. Microsoft committed at least $1 billion to four data centers across Catawba County in Conover, Hickory, and Maiden, while Google is adding $1 billion to its long-running Lenoir campus and Apple keeps expanding the Maiden iCloud site it has poured billions into since 2009. CBRE clocked the Charlotte and Raleigh markets at 113.4 megawatts of data-center space under construction, more than 15 times the prior high, with roughly 90 percent preleased. On the food side, Ahold Delhaize USA broke ground on an $860 million, 1.1-million-square-foot fresh-and-frozen distribution center in Burlington, and the Port of Wilmington's in-port cold storage anchors a poultry and pork export pipeline worth more than a billion dollars a year. Builds like these run on mechanical piping: chilled-water and glycol cooling loops, closed-loop liquid cooling for high-density racks, mission-critical process piping, pump skids, and the supports and hangers that carry all of it, plus cooling and process piping and sanitary food-grade stainless on the cold-storage and food-processing side. That's the kind of scope our traveling field welding crews are built to run, either as a specialty crew or as overflow for a mechanical contractor who's slammed. We do full-scope design, fabrication, and install, and we'll tell you straight what we can take on.
The opportunity
North Carolina, by the numbers
- $10B+AWS data-center campus, Richmond County NC
- 113.4 MWCharlotte + Raleigh data center space under construction (CBRE, H1 2024)
- $860MADUSA fresh & frozen distribution center, Burlington
What these builds need
The mechanical scope we run
The kind of mechanical and welding scope these North Carolina data-center and cold-storage builds typically require, and what our traveling crews run:
- Data center process piping and cooling piping welding: chilled-water and glycol loop piping, closed-loop liquid cooling lines, and mission-critical mechanical piping for hyperscale and colocation builds
- Pipe spool fabrication plus pump skids, supports, and hangers, fabricated and set so field crews aren't waiting on steel
- Cold storage welding and refrigeration-system support: process and cooling piping and headers for freezers, blast cells, and distribution centers
- Sanitary stainless welding and food-grade stainless process piping fabrication and install for food-processing and cold-storage lines
- Structural steel, equipment supports, and field welding across mechanical rooms, central plants, and refrigeration decks
- Shutdown and turnaround welding plus plant maintenance welding, run as a traveling field welding crew or mechanical-contractor overflow crew
Metros we cover
Across North Carolina
- Charlotte
- Raleigh / Research Triangle
- Hickory / Catawba County
- Maiden
- Lenoir
- Richmond County / Hamlet
- Burlington
- Wilmington
What we bring
Capabilities for North Carolina
Good to know
North Carolina — FAQ
Do you have a crew working on the Amazon, Microsoft, or Apple data centers in North Carolina?
No. We don't claim any contract, bid, or role at any named site. We point to those projects to show the type of data-center and cold-storage mechanical work North Carolina is generating right now, because that scope, chilled-water and glycol cooling piping, process piping, skids, supports, and field welding, is exactly what our traveling crews are built to run. If you're a contractor or owner who needs that work done, that's the conversation to have.
You're based out of state, so why hire you for North Carolina work?
We're a traveling specialty crew based in Northwest Indiana and Southwest Florida, and we're set up to mobilize. We're not trying to outbid local shops on everyday welding. We target data-center cooling piping, cold-storage refrigeration, and food-grade stainless work in metros like Charlotte, Raleigh, Hickory, and Wilmington, coming in as your dedicated crew or as overflow when your mechanical contractor is stacked up and behind.
What kinds of welding and piping do you handle on cold storage and food-grade builds?
Cooling and process piping, sanitary and food-grade stainless process piping fabrication and install, pipe spool fabrication, and the supports, hangers, and skids that carry it. We run full-scope design, fabrication, and install with crews, never a lone welder, so freezers, blast cells, and distribution centers like the build-out around Burlington and Wilmington get a complete mechanical package.
What certifications and credentials does your crew carry?
Our welders are AWS-certified, our people are OSHA 10 and 30 trained, and we're insured and bonded. We scope honestly and tell you straight what we can take on. If a job needs credentials we don't hold, we'll say so up front rather than stretch the truth.