By: Paul Powers, Induron Mid-Central Regional Manager
It’s my favorite part of the baseball season. Schedules are winding down, teams are posturing for the playoffs–it is an extremely exciting time for a fan like me. Who will it be, that will step up to the plate, to surge ahead of the rest, to do the best, to be the best? Man, does it feel awesome when it is your team that “dug in” and performed on the biggest of stages.
Recently, I was a part of a similar event that reminded me of this type of team performance. Rather than a team of athletes, it involved a team made up by an engineering firm, a painting contractor, and a group of dedicated professionals, here at Induron Coatings.
The project challenges
TWM, Inc. came to us with a very intricate coatings project at a large chemical processing facility in St. Louis, MO. Because the project did not involve an addition or new building, the coatings needed to be applied to existing structures, entwined with in-place and operating equipment. As we dove in deeper, lead engineer, Tom Packman (TWM, Inc.) shared a detailed list of chemicals that created the environment we needed to address with our coatings selection. His list included very aggressive materials, which made the selection of Induron’s Novasafe Ceramic Novolac Epoxy the answer to address future corrosion issues.
The coatings solution
Novasafe Ceramic Novolac Epoxy is a stout, ultra-high performance beast when it comes to chemical resistance–both acidic and caustic environments.Novasafe is a thick-film, ceramic-filled novolac epoxy formulated to stand up to the most extreme environments encountered in treatment plants on concrete and carbon steel surfaces. While Novasafe is generally used as a tank lining in our ceramic epoxy line, this situation called for us to pull out the big guns as the baseline of the system used.Novasafe was applied to the structural materials and installed and top coated by two coats of PermaClean II Epoxy.
The project outcome
As with most projects, the timing and schedule continued to evolve. Bazan Painting Company, headed up by Project Manager Stuart Skillington was put under the gun. Weekends, night crews, shorter deadlines, and completing their work while the plant was operating was the beginning of “who will step up to the plate.” To say the least, Stuart and I talked several times over the weekends, making sure we were on the same page with the changes.
Now enters my compadres at Induron. Bazan Painting was being asked to all but create miracles, so we opted to be part of the solution and step up our own game. The common application method of spraying was no longer an option, so getting the testing and quality control set and the raw materials in production became the priority. The entire company–from our owner to the team getting it on the truck well in advance of the original target date–stepped up to the plate and the Bazan team was especially grateful.
“I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you and Induron’ s customer service accelerating the production of Novasafe for us,” said Stuart Skillington, the Project Manager at Bazan Painting Co.”The quality and easy application of Novasafe, along with the other primers and topcoats, made this a successful project.”
Thank you, TWM, Inc. and Bazan Painting, for the opportunity to step up to the plate with a coating solution and work together toward a successful project.