Founded in 1957, the company houses a rebuild facility in Houston and a manufacturing facility in Bryan, Texas; boasts one of the largest machine shops in the state; and, while it’s making a move in the industry toward hydraulics, has found a niche in continuing to rebuild friction rigs and undercarriages.

“The crane industry in general is kind of a niche market,” says Travis Stokes, Sales. “But the friction cranes themselves have become extremely niche, which is what we manufacture a full line of parts for.”

Friction cranes work on a series of gears and clutches, with each drum activated by friction. It’s an older technology that’s been in use for 100 years, but in the last 20 years the industry has seen a slow shift to hydraulic, with a more rapid pace over the course of last five years, Stokes explains. And while there’s still a place for the friction cranes, it’s become an extremely specialized market.

Friction cranes are still popular in various parts of the world, but Stokes explains that the transition in the crane industry at large from friction to hydraulic machines is good news for his company.

“We’ve expanded into hydraulics as well, so it’s been good for us in the sense that we’re able to cater to machines that no one else can,” he says. “You have to adapt to what the market’s been doing. As far as growth goes, that’s really what I would point to as a significant factor: we’ve been purchasing parts of machines, selling machines, and manufacturing parts for both friction and hydraulic machines.”

Evolving with the industry
Mitchell Crane has expanded its product line to accommodate what’s become commonplace in the industry, which is along the same lines as what’s happening with the electric car phenomenon, he says. “You have to adapt to figure it out. It’s not common enough for every mechanic shop to know how to work on a Tesla, for instance. That transition is occurring for us though, and you have to be able to accommodate hydraulic machines now.”

And the change is one that is needed. While static cranes will still do the essential job of picking up heavy things, the nature of the cranes’ speed and the safety with which they will do the work, coupled with the speed to move from one location to another, is all greatly favored on the hydraulic side, and Mitchell Crane has risen to the occasion.

“Hydraulics are the future and we’re there,” says Stokes. “But these frictions rigs haven’t gone away. Rather than the hydraulics taking over and the friction rigs disappearing, what you have is a definitive split, in which the friction rigs are in these very niche markets, but they’re still there. They’re not being hauled off to the scrap yard.”

On a global scale, developing countries such as Mexico, Vietnam and India all have a significant amount of friction rigs that the company caters to, while still continuing to move into the hydraulic side. Mitchell Crane, says Stokes, stands alone in catering to both sides of the market. “We stay busy,” he says. “We get busier all the time, and busy with different things.”

The undercarriage service, for example, is a very popular service for the company right now, with numerous jobs on the books. It’s a big job, essentially rebuilding the lower half of the walking part of the machine completely, including tracks, rollers, brass bushings, and seals. Mitchell Crane has always done that work with the friction rigs, but now has an equal amount of jobs between friction and hydraulic.

Personalized service
From a service perspective, Mitchell Crane has it covered, with the manufacturing facility in Bryan encompassing more than 30,000 square feet of machining floor to provide the aftermarket crane parts, with a mobile mechanic fleet doing repairs on site. If the repairs are more extensive, the repair facility in Houston does the repairs or rebuilds.

“One of the unique things we do is a complete machine rebuild, where we take in a friction rig — one of these older cranes that’s still a 200-ton crane — and rebuild it from the ground up, with the parts we make in Bryan,” says Stokes. “We can do it complete with the friction rigs also because we have the knowledge on these cranes. That knowledge is retiring bit by bit, but because of the wealth of knowledge we’ve had in the new generation we’ve been training here, it allows us to cater to that.”

But before rebuilding a rig, or choosing which machine is right for the job, Stokes needs to know a variety of information such as what the application is or, for example, the amount of times the customer wants to move the machine. If they plan to move it two or three times a week to different job sites, he may suggest a hydraulic crane; if the rig will sit and perform big lifts at a port, for example, or go onto a barge, then friction is a great option.

It’s challenging, he says, as the biggest obstacle is keeping up with the ever changing landscape of both hydraulic and friction markets. “But because the markets are growing each in their own way, it’s a really good problem to have!” says Stokes.

Mitchell Crane also works just as hard to maintain its strong relationships with its customers, ones it has solidified over the past decades. “It’s cliché, but it’s a partnership,” he says. “What’s distinct about us is the fact that we’re a manufacturer; we manufacture and stock a full line of aftermarket parts for cranes for the friction rigs, and we’re developing a full line for hydraulics – and we do that as we always have by working with customers.”

A manufacturer’s perspective
Mitchell Crane has the ability to make virtually anything in-house, Stokes says, while other crane companies, be they dealers or parts houses or used parts houses, typically run into a road block somewhere with a problem. If the customer has a broken part, or the part is no longer available, what do you do?

“With us it’s different. When we run into that problem we look into making it. ‘How can it be made? Can we make it cheaper? Can we make it stronger? Can we make it better?’ Maybe the customer doesn’t like the price. We talk about options with material, because we’ve got the knowledge to be able to do that because we’re making the products in-house.”

From a manufacturer’s point of view, having the capacity and knowledge in manufacturing makes that customer partnership even more valuable. “We’ve been in business for more than 50 years now, and have faced competition throughout. Customer service is often the competitive edge that makes all the difference. You have to have good customer relationships to have any kind of sustainability in business.”

The same goes for the company’s relationships with its employees: it’s a family business in its fourth generation, and the team works hard to maintain that culture, in an environment where most of the employees have been there more than 10 years.

“We’re close-knit in a family business like ours,” Stokes says. “It’s a little bit different than the corporate world and we like it that way.”

Looking ahead
Over the years, Mitchell Crane has transformed from simply selling hydraulic cranes to being proficient in them, while also continuing to help customers develop ideas for new projects on a daily basis.

“One of our policies is if you can draw it on a napkin we can make it – and we have,” says Stokes. “That’s cool for me, that we’re able to bring any idea to fruition. We work not just in metal but nylon and plastic too. [We will be] going to CONEXPO [this March 10-14] and we’re looking forward to the new opportunities that will come from the show.”

Success for Mitchell Crane will continue to mean growth in the coming years, says Stokes, something that will forever be the company’s policy, as expansion and diversification is a staple of who they are.

“If you’re not growing, you’re not going anywhere,” says Stokes. “Stagnation is the death of small business. You can’t sit around and wait for the phone to ring. You can’t sit around and sell buggies while Ford’s putting out model T’s. You have to grow and you have to expand or you won’t last the next 10 years.”

The post Carving Out its Place in a Niche Market<p class="company">Mitchell Crane</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The company has a service team called STAR Field Fit that goes out to examine the needs of its clients’ power plants, and this gives it the ability to provide the highest quality of products and services. The STAR Field Fit Team’s semi-trailer trucks are equipped with machine shops. These trucks enable STAR to quickly make parts onsite at the power plant.

The capacity to respond quickly is essential in the power industry, because if a plant goes down, it can affect an entire city. STAR is always improving its service speed for when a power plant is having issues. The mobile team serves all of the United States, and it has also ventured overseas into Europe, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico.

“We are the only turbine company that’s woman-owned and family-owned, and most of the others are big companies like GE. But we are at this point right now getting about eighty percent of all replacement parts in this industry, which is wonderful,” says STAR Administrative Assistant Trish Reid.

The family company began in 1988, when Tammy Flaherty brought the idea of manufacturing replacement parts to her father John P. Flaherty Jr. who owned a foundry at the time. The Flaherty family already had plenty of experience in manufacturing going back four or five generations to the early 1900s. Trish, who also happens to be Tammy’s sister, describes the beginning of the company’s journey. “She sat down with my dad, and they decided to start this little company called STAR in 1988. Tammy had a vision of an enduring, woman-owned business, and together they decided they would make these parts individually to go into all the power plants throughout the U.S. and got on the road and started making sales calls and pitching it. That’s how we started.”

The Star Field Fit branch of the company was established in 2001, and after a recent expansion, STAR now has two locations in Marion, Ohio. There are approximately fifty employees within the company, and Star Field Fit has fifteen staff members specialized in reverse engineering.

With clear emotion in her voice, company President and Chief Executive Officer Tammy Flaherty expressed appreciation for her loyal and dedicated team of employees. “I have to say, I am so blessed with everyone at my company.” Much of the staff has been with STAR for over twenty-five years, and this is because once someone becomes a part of the team, they are considered part of the family.

“We are all kind of one big family. We have a lot of lunches and dinners together, and we do a lot of celebrating together. We take care of family, and if issues come up, we try to help out family and with things that people need here,” says Trish. STAR is a strong believer in helping people through hard times and has helped provide the funding for treatment when a family member of one of its people is having trouble with addiction.

Just as the company is very engaged with the care of its employees and their families, it is also highly involved with the community and local organizations in Marion, Ohio. It takes a particular interest in addiction counseling and recovery because the drug-related problems have become more prevalent in the community, and STAR wants to uplift all the people of Marion. “Marion is also a family to us. This hometown is where we grow up, and so the people here mean a lot to us here,” says Trish.

STAR gives back through the local YMCA, donates money to home healthcare service Helping Hands, and supports Goodwill’s career center by employing people who are having trouble seeking work. It provides coats to children at a local school and dedicates time to support food shelters in person. From the Marion Palace Theatre to recovery centers, hospitals, and schools, there is no aspect of the community that STAR has not supported in the last thirty-two years.

For a number of years, Tammy was also on the board of directors for the Marion Area Chamber of Commerce. She was involved with a manufacturing group within the chamber focused on helping to build businesses back up after the town lost much of its industry in the early 1980s.

Ohio State University has a regional campus in Marion and STAR supports the school in several ways. All of its employees are offered education through the Marion Technical College, which is on the same campus as Ohio State University at Marion. The company encourages its people to improve themselves and move up the ladder because its goal is to promote from within as much as possible.

Although the details are under wraps, STAR is in discussions surrounding an exciting new idea for a patent in the turbine industry. The company continuously searches for emerging technology and different methods to improve efficiency and decrease waste.

“We’re always looking to the future on how to do better with the energy field. What is the best thing for the community? What is the best thing for the U.S., and how can the power companies help?” Trish says.

To reduce the amount of material discarded into landfills, waste-to-energy (WtE) has become more common in the U.S. in recent years, and this is an area in which STAR is quite knowledgeable. Waste can be burned and turned into usable energy, yet this method is not as well-known as solar or wind alternatives.

Of course, the company supports a variety of approaches to generating power, including coal and nuclear power plants; however, it makes adjustments wherever possible to mitigate the effects of power generation on the environment.

The coal industry is STAR’s biggest market, but as more coal plants are shut down across the country, the company seeks to support these facilities and suggest possible innovative ideas that could help turn the business around, including waste-to-energy.

Integrity and honesty are the two most fundamental values here, and this attitude comes directly from its leadership. Every employee quickly learns the company will go out of its way to resolve an issue or make up for a mistake. If a part is incorrect or any other problem occurs, STAR will immediately find a way to make it right. As this is a family-owned company, the Flaherty name is on the line, and its reputation as a trustworthy partner is too important to risk.

To receive some feedback on its services, STAR sent out a newsletter to clients to ask how satisfied they were and see if there were any recommendations on ways to improve. The clear message from the responses was that clients appreciate when a company recognizes and validates their concerns.

Growing at a comfortable speed, STAR acquired a second building for expansion, hired additional employees, and purchased new machinery last year. And the company will continue promoting education for its employees to keep them moving forward in their careers.

In the hopes of remaining ahead of the curve in the industry, STAR is excited to branch out into new fields and discover new technology, building upon Tammy’s vision. “We’re always trying to grow, find places where we’re needed, and find new ways to help produce electricity to the world. We are trying to stay on top and be innovative,” explains Trish.

With thirty-two years of experience in the turbine industry, STAR has learned to make every effort possible to take care of the environment, no matter how small or insignificant a new green initiative may seem. “You have to stay on top of the environmental protection. It’s not just making a part; it’s making a clean part. It’s trying to keep the world clean; it’s the EPA; it’s everything that we can do to be on top of making this world a better place,” says Trish.

The post A Turbine Manufacturer Protecting the Environment and Supporting its Community<p class="company">Steam Turbine Alternative Resources</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Texas-based, family-owned Axium Solar has devoted itself to creating quality renewable energy solutions readily accessible to consumers since 2006, when founder Bob Kendrick — owner of Axium Electric, an energy management business — constructed his own eco-friendly home, complete with a solar-panel system. The construction intrigued his neighbors enough that Bob not only educated them about renewable energy, but extended his own company into the solar services business.

“Out of a concern for the future of our kids and environmental climate change, and being good stewards of the environment and our world, Bob decided he wanted to go solar at his house and make it a net zero application,” says Axium Vice President and General Manager Eric Cotney. “He started researching the technology and decided he could do it himself, making his house run off renewable energy with a combination of wind and solar, while at same time getting into the solar business.”

These days, Axium employs a team of skilled renewable energy experts to work with owners, architects, engineers, and contractors during every phase of a project, from design through construction, encouraging consumers to exercise their ability to affect the future of this planet positively, emphasizing that “choices can change things.”

The early years saw Axium focused on the residential market, with quite a bit of servicing of those who wanted to go solar at their own homes, says Cotney.

“We then bid on and won a big commercial deal, and we gradually started transitioning our business to the commercial market. We still did both residential and commercial, but had a lot of success in the commercial side, making a name for ourselves in Dallas as one of the go-to companies for anyone wanting to go solar.”

The company now works exclusively in the commercial, industrial and utility markets, focusing on rooftop projects, carport systems, ground mounts, and also utility-scale solar farms. Axium performs projects turnkey and also as a subcontractor for the electrical scope. Axium will finish this year at 100MW of installed solar capacity, a significant milestone for the company.

“We do pretty much every single application that’s out there for solar, including covered parking and canopies,” says Owner and Construction Manager Derik Kendrick. “That’s our focus in the renewable industry.” Axium also works to align itself with other green industries, creating partnerships to help share and build awareness of clean, renewable energy.

“We prefer to work with customers from the very beginning of a project to help them design, doing all the engineering, procurement and construction,” says Cotney, “and then we also have a dedicated service team that allows us to continue the relationship with the customer and follow up with any necessary service.”

Mainly operating in the state of Texas, Axium is now branching out to other states, including Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana. But no matter where they provide their services, their dedication and passion for the industry remains paramount.

“The main thing is that we’re focused on helping as many people go solar as possible,” says Vanessa Green, Director of Operations. “We’re all very driven and passionate, and really care about what we do, and it reflects in the work that the rest of the team performs as well. Even the guys in the field are passionate about what they do. They work long hours sometimes, but they do it because they know that the end goal is good for the environment and everybody all around.”

Axium also prides itself on its diversity initiative, employing ten deaf workers in a number of different positions, starting three years ago with the hiring of the deaf nephew of a 10-year employee.

“Since then, we’ve hired his best friends, and then their friends and now we have them spread out all over different jobs, including two service guys, one in the north and one in south Texas,” says Kendrick. “We have key positions for deaf people in different types of jobs, and lots of employees have learned sign language. It’s become a whole deal within the company, like a little community all working together.”

Kendrick himself has become fluent enough that he can communicate with all the teams, running and managing the crews. “We’ve really adopted this culture,” adds Green.

“It’s a real personal commitment of his, doing what it takes to make this happen,” says Cotney. He adds that many employees have also taken classes on their own, learning enough sign language to communicate with deaf workers on the job. Last year Axium received the Medium Business Lex Friedman award, for businesses that hire disabled workers.

Axium’s growth and success in the industry as a whole definitely lies partly in its strong, unified workforce, where employees are devoted and dedicated to the product and its benefits.

“We’re also unique in the marketplace, because Axium has chosen to retain a large labor force,” says Cotney. “Whenever someone hires us, the work is predominantly done by Axium Solar employees. A lot of companies are sales companies or engineering and design companies, and they hire subcontractors. We feel we’re unique in that we do all of it.”

This means the quality of an installation is in the control of Axium itself, as it’s their team doing the work. Cotney stresses that not a lot of people in Texas have commercial and industrial experience that Axium has, in terms of number and scope of projects. “We’re unrivalled in terms of our experience and reputation out there.”

They’re also distinct in their ability to maintain company unity and communication, according to Green. “Often, as companies become corporate, they become isolated in their departments and don’t communicate with each other, and we’re not like that,” she says. “We’re one big team. If there’s a question about something we put our heads together and make ourselves stronger as a team. We look at all different angles of a project and what a client might want, to create cost and installation efficiency so we can meet our deadlines.”

As climate concerns continue to escalate, so will the need and desire for solar energy as a main source of power, but this, says Cotney, wasn’t always the case, especially in the beginning.

“It’s been great to see the growth in the solar industry. Initially, I was skeptical that we’d see the kind of growth that we’ve seen. It’s been really refreshing and exciting to be a part of the industry as a whole and see the widespread adoption that’s taking place,” he shares.

“Solar as experienced a significant drop in price and increase in efficiency over the past few years,” continues Cotney. “A dollar spent on solar technology goes much further today than it did even three years ago. When I started in the industry, many customers were willing to invest in solar even if the return on investment wasn’t necessarily that attractive. They were predominantly interested in investing in the future both as a hedge against rising energy costs and doing their part to create a better environment,” he explains.

“Now we still have the responsibility piece, but we’re also making financial sense, and we’re seeing a lot more adoption because it’s a viable supplementary technology that we’ve been doing — it’s even becoming a preferred technology in many cases. I never saw this coming to the scale it is now, but it’s exciting to be a part of this industry!”

Axium also maintains its commitment to taking care of customers by staying true to its word right from the start, even if that means a possible financial loss.

“Our reputation and our integrity in the marketplace is the most important thing, and we’re going to do the right thing for the customer,” says Cotney. “We often have that discussion with customers to make sure their expectations of the technology and market conditions line up with reality. We don’t want to do something that’s going to give Axium or the industry as a whole a bad name. This company is committed to that and I couldn’t work here if that wasn’t a core value.”

Axium also works hard to maintain its impeccable culture of safety, by enforcing higher than average qualifications and minimum requirements for all employees.

“Every day we have safety group chats with different topics across the company as a whole,” says Green. “We reinforce safety for experienced employees, and also teach new guys to stay safe and look out for each other along the way.”

The future continues to look bright for all environmentally responsible industries, and Cotney says that Axium has been riding that wave. “We’ve both created and had a lot of opportunities come our way that we’ve capitalized on. Plus, doing the right thing for people and doing a good job has made us the preferred partner for many of our existing customers. We seize the opportunities that come our way and capitalize on them,” he says. “That’s why we’ve grown. We’re seeing some markets open up for us that we don’t normally chase, and we see ourselves growing toward even larger projects and other markets in years to come.”

Knowing that your product is not only helping your customers, but making the world a better, cleaner place for future generations is a noble goal that ensures every Axium employee is proud to display the company name.

The post Running on Sunshine – Harnessing a Passion for Solar Sustainability<p class="company">Axium Solar</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

RegO® is well recognized as a specialized manufacturer of flow-control components and engineered-to-order applications. Truly countless customers have turned to its wide-ranging offerings of valves, pressure regulators and other safety devices for gases in liquid form.

RegO’s primary markets are liquid propane, industrial gases like liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen, liquid helium or argon, as well as liquid natural gas. Gas in liquid form needs cold or pressurized conditions to take on liquid form, making it extremely dangerous, toxic or explosive, and making the rare abilities of RegO® even more valuable.

As CEO Mike Lucas explains, “These are very demanding applications, particularly industrial gas applications to get those gases to stay in liquid form. You’re often negative two hundred and forty degrees, three hundred degrees below zero.”

Safety for a century
Such conditions are not only challenging, they’re mission critical and leave no room for error.

Customers want safety, security, and peace of mind knowing that they will be safe, and that’s where RegO® Products excel. Who better to support that mission and handle these dangerous and sensitive pressurized gases at extraordinarily low temperatures, than a company with over one hundred years of solid experience? This is the real deal, a serious business in a serious field – a far cry from any trendiness or fashion.

“Our real brand proposition, our real brand value and, I think, why customers come back to us, is really the safety – I should say quality, and reliability – of the products,” says Lucas. “Safety is of utmost importance to our customers and it’s really been the long history of quality and reliability of the products.”

Further to RegO® being a leader in expertise, quality and reliability, RegO® Products has been an innovator throughout its long history and offers customers access to over five thousand active products in its catalog.

RegO® Products’ product management team stays apprised of its customers’ needs, as Lucas noted. “Understanding the applications and customers well enough that we can spot unmet product gaps or business model gaps. We look to increase operation, safety, or performance of their systems.

“We’ve been the first to market with a lot of products, but I think it’s really that peace of mind. Customers just know those products are going to work. They are designed to work and work robustly in those applications,” Lucas explained.

Of the company’s robust approach to quality, Lucas says, “Validation and verification of the design takes place at our own labs and through a third party,” in terms of product and material quality, performance requirements, standards, tolerances and accuracy.

“We have extensive quality-control processes all the way back to qualifying and validating vendors, to testing incoming components and materials,” he says, and explains that testing is done both manually and automatically to ensure high reliability and repeatability.

Global presence
Based in Elon, North Carolina, where it operates four manufacturing facilities, RegO® Products is a domestic manufacturer with a global presence. The company has invested in the development of extensive global sales and distribution channels to support its domestic and global customers, as well as local and international engineering centers and test labs where its products are tested and validated.

Lucas highlighted RegO® Products’ commitment to being “Made in the USA,” which comes in the form of a $7 million capital investment plan. Over the next couple of years, its North Carolina facilities which will see the addition of fifty full-time employees and of increased capacity to meet demand. Currently, RegO® Products has seven-hundred employees globally.

Across its operations, investments in improved capacity and output are taking place. RegO® Products dedicates extensive resources to the production process. This is both to ensure quality and safety during production, and to ensure compliance with internal and external standards and requirements.

Lucas says, “We want to make sure our factories remain state-of-the-art, and remain flexible, both for growth and to take advantage of the new manufacturing technologies available.”

Not jobs – careers
To offer the best, it must be the best, and to do that RegO® has identified several ways to attract, develop and retain talent. RegO® utilizes county and state training grants, creates apprenticeship and internship programs that allow it to benefit from direct college recruitment, and offers pathways for career advancement that help it leverage the best talent.

“It’s a focus area,” says Lucas. “We’re constantly working on it so we can get good people in and we give them a career path and chances to learn more and keep them engaged and in the business for the long-term.”

Lucas described a skills matrix that RegO® Products developed that guides training and advancement activities, so employees can clearly define career targets and so establish a career path with the support of the company. Every effort is made to promote from within and there are full-time trainers on staff to help employees reach their goals.

Close attention is also paid to the culture to ensure it reflects the company’s human-centered values. This achievement serves as an additional tool to attract and retain labor and improves engagement and employee buy-in company-wide.

RegO® consciously fosters a culture based on respect, engagement and a sense of pride. In part, the company owes its longevity to the way its culture has adapted and evolved throughout its long history; as it has grown; and as the market has changed. Never has it been stagnant or complacent.

In every aspect of its operations it continues to improve and evolve to remain attentive, fast, efficient, responsive, and flexible for its customers. It is these traits which have enabled it to grow and that will position it for the future, as the company will surely need to evolve continuously to remain competitive in the accelerating changes of the global market.

Strategy for the future
Surviving more than a century in business is not random luck, especially considering the rate of failure of companies today. There aren’t many who can boast that kind of longevity. Nevertheless, just as RegO® Products has three core business streams, it has three core strategies of focus to continue the company’s advance into the future.

As the largest manufacturer in the liquid propane space, the goal for RegO® will be first to maintain product and service quality to protect existing customers, and to sustain control of its market share.

In its two other business segments, industrial gases and liquid natural gas, the plan is to more aggressively target growth, both through expanded sales channels and new product development opportunities, and to grow its market share in both segments respectively.

Beyond its three core business segments, a permanent and overarching goal of RegO® Products is to look internally to improve the reliability, responsiveness and value it offers its customers without compromising the reputation for safety and quality it has earned in the liquid gas market.

The post Quality Backed up by More Than a Century of Expertise<p class="company">RegO® Products</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Owner and operator Cody Wallis began the company with fellow owner-operator Randy Brown in mid-summer 2011. Wallis was primarily an investor (he was involved with another business at the time), with Brown at the heart of the operation, but after a few months, Wallis stepped in to help with the field division and remains hands-on to this day.

Wallis remembers how the company began in a Quonset hut out in the country; in its early days just a small crew spending its time sandblasting up to 400 barrel tanks at a time and coating them in an adjacent barn.

After three months, rapid growth had overwhelmed the company’s first facility, forcing a move to the current location in Red Deer County, Alberta. Today, Pro Paint’s primary focus is serving the coating industry with its solutions as well as numerous types of industrial applications, ranging from structure seal piping and internal and external tank liners to pipeline and main line coatings, with in-shop facilities (on-site or in the field), and more.

Pipeline of growth
Recently, Pro Paint has invested in abatement with automated blast machines, one of which is completely dustless (meaning it leaves a smaller on-site footprint and needs less manpower), making it a safer application and one that clients love.

In late 2011, a field division was added to the company, and 2015 saw the expansion of its shop to over 17,500 square feet as its field-equipment fleet grew and services expanded. The company also internally produced an automated spray machine, with software designed and developed by the project manager.

Wallis – with admirable attention to detail – notes that a highlight of the company’s developments is the ability to coat even a diminutive two-inch slotted pipe with 100 percent solid coating. As Pro Paint comes close to celebrating a decade in business, it is still introducing new services and methods to keep its product offerings dynamic and its clientele satisfied.

A strong workforce
Pro Paint is an owner-operated business in the literal sense, meaning that management – including Wallis and Brown – operate hands-on on its many projects, something they’ve done since the company’s inception (they appear in hard hats and mud on the company website). Wallis confirms this identity, noting that management has a close relationship with the workforce.

“We care about them, and our guys care about working for us, [which] puts us ahead of other companies at points.” The company puts emphasis on its high levels of product quality and safety, and the ability to provide a solution for any customer’s concerns no matter the problem or project; or as put succinctly by Wallis, “we never provide [clients] an empty bucket.”

As a coating provider that is a service company as well, Pro Paint applies itself intensely to achieve its customers’ desired outcomes, even when it involves extremes of innovative thinking or a challenging and extended process of development. Wallis describes a customer in Canada who arrived saying no other outfit was capable of providing a solution – a challenge that Pro Paint gamely took on and is now a successful project in the finishing stages.

At all times, the company works tirelessly to elicit a customer’s end goal and the image they wish to project, and to create the solution together. Resulting from the success of this approach, a lot of the company’s work is repeat business, building its name on the successful projects it has completed in the past. Wallis adds that this is how the company grew its customer base in its first seven years, so never had to advertise or invest in a sales department.

Safety first
The company’s commitment to safety is also an essential aspect of its identity, a commitment that functions from the top to the bottom. All employees from front line to management are expected to hold each other accountable for workplace safety.

Wallis is firm that no employee should overlook any potentially unsafe action or hazard, that “no one is above or below… it’s all of our jobs.” He says with feeling that every business in the construction sector should follow that commitment to the letter.

As most companies in the coating and abatement sectors feel the current squeeze and rationalize, Pro Paint continues to provide a high-level professional service at affordable rates suited to market conditions. An apparent reason for Pro Paint’s longevity is that competitors and clients alike appreciate that the company is owner-operated as opposed to publicly owned, meaning that it has a better feel for the pulse of the market, and can change pace quickly.

Thanks to this operational agility, it can also make snap decisions based on a customer’s or project’s changing circumstance, sometimes even adding overhead costs as bigger companies are driven to cut them.

That’s why, while the total market sector has dwindled, the company has remained more than competitive.

Indigenous-owned
Another aspect of the company that distinguishes it from remaining competitors has to do with one of its owners. Cody Wallis and Randy Brown bought out their third partner a few years ago to become fellow equal owners. With that, Pro Paint became in effect a 50 percent Aboriginal-owned outfit through Randy’s cultural background.

Wallis explains that while the company is proud to be a part of the Aboriginal business sector, it does not use that identity as leverage; however, a few larger proponents within the Indigenous communities have reached out for face-to-face meetings, inquiring about this aspect of the Pro Paint identity, and the Indigenous communities would like to see someone like Brown be considered for any work they provide.

Bright past, bright future
Over the years, Pro Paint has become known for such projects as the NOVA Chemicals re-expansion in 2016 (a $1.8 billion expansion project); the Trans-Canada Fort Hills Project in Fort McMurray; and the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line (a Co2 pipeline that looks to capture excess carbon monoxide in Alberta province and store it underground where it can be re-used or absorbed).

The future looks to be every bit as promising as it looked ten years ago. Pro Paint expects to be doing more allotted abatement in 2020, for which it now has a presence in Ottawa, and also more tank work in Winnipeg. Further work in British Columbia for the LNG (liquefied natural gas) Canada Project is currently in a bidding process, as well as a project to build a trans-mountain pipeline.

Wallis, when asked about surviving in a sector with larger outfits in play, resists the notion that Pro Paint is a “smaller” business. He notes that while the company has around 50 to 70 staff members, it still offers a competitive price against the larger coating firms in the industry and has proven itself fully capable of handling very large projects.

It’s clear that Pro Paint is a company that carries the attitude to succeed as well as the practices and services to back it up, big reasons why it’s on an upward track as it approaches its ten-year mark.

The post A Decade of Expert Industrial Coatings<p class="company">Pro Paint</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Two years after its inception, Elizabeth Carbide Components joined its parent company and is now one of seven companies under the umbrella of Elizabeth Carbide Die Co. Inc. Melvin B. Peterson established the parent company in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, in 1954. Under his leadership, it found a great deal of success in the compression tooling industry and has grown to serve the global marketplace.

A focus on fully custom, built-to-order components has enabled Elizabeth Carbide Components to find its niche in the oil and gas industry. “All of our manufacturing is custom made to customer drawing specifications. We don’t have a catalogue. We don’t have any parts on a shelf that we sell. It is all made to drawing specifications and then the pricing is determined by the quantity, style, and tolerances,” says Ken Plunko, Sales Manager at Elizabeth Carbide Components.

Many of the company’s fifty-six employees in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, have enjoyed a long-tenured career with the company. The leadership aims to promote from within and much of its management team began careers on the shop floor and climbed the ladder over time. To recruit new talented people, Elizabeth Carbide Components provides funding for a machinist apprenticeship program. It also regularly advertises for dedicated, experienced employees, yet finds that word of mouth and referrals are the most successful avenues for recruitment.

The company also works with local schools to raise awareness about the need for qualified machinists and collaborates with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to find potential employees to lessen the impact of the skilled labor shortage.

Elizabeth Carbide Components serves a variety of industries, but the oil and gas market makes up approximately seventy percent of the business. Every year, the team participates in two large conferences pertaining to this sector: the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas and the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary, Alberta. They also take part in FABTECH, an exhibition for the metal forming, stamping, and fabricating industries. The convention is a great opportunity to learn about the newest technology and improve the company’s ability to manufacture specialized components. By participating in such events, the company aims to help push the industry forward.

The business has experienced plenty of growth over the last ten years, although much of this growth took place before the oil and gas crisis in 2015. “Unfortunately, with the oil and gas industry, you live and die with it. When it’s good, it’s good, and when it’s bad, it’s bad. We had our downturn four years ago, and when it hit, it hit us bad. We went from $14.5 million down to $5.5 million, but we’ve recovered. We got involved with other different types of industry to basically keep the lights on and doors open, and now we’ve bounced back,” says Plunko.

When the price of crude oil dropped, Elizabeth Carbide Components turned the challenge into an opportunity and invested in itself by upgrading and expanding its manufacturing facility to ensure it had the capacity to grow when the economy picked up again. “We actually doubled our facility about four years ago, right about the time that everything tapered off. We doubled our size from 22,500 square feet to 45,000 square feet. Now we have additional room to grow into,” says Joe Smola, Plant Manager at Elizabeth Carbide Components.

Elizabeth Carbide Components is dedicated to ongoing improvement and strives to purchase new equipment as often as possible to keep up with the latest advancements in manufacturing. The company has a wide variety of machines designed for machining, grinding, polishing, and Electrical Discharge Machining. In the grinding department, the company utilizes both computer numerical control (CNC) and conventional equipment capable of inner diameter and outer diameter grinding, like its three Danobat Overbeck IRD 400 CNC grinders which can grind pieces on I.D. and O.D., with a single set up in a range of sizes, and its Kellenberger K100 Grinder, with a wide range of sizes.

Elizabeth Carbide Components offers surface grinding for pieces up to twenty-four inches long; thread grinding of carbide or ceramic material; centerless grinding, honing, turning, milling, brazing, lapping and polishing to a two micro inch finish; and laser etching, labeling and bar coding for identification and traceability.

Over the course of its existence, Elizabeth Carbide Components has built a reputation for quality service and on-time delivery. “We take as much pride in shipping our products as we do in making them. People appreciate that and the customer service we provide. Our customer service people are very prompt and get back with the customers right away. Our capabilities, the quality of the products we manufacture, and our customer service are the things that keep the customers coming back,” says Ken.

Quality assurance is key. The company has an ISO 9001-2015 certification, demonstrating consistent, quality production and complete traceability of all the materials and processes it uses in its operation.

“Elizabeth Carbide Components is located in what is known in the carbide industry as ‘Carbide Valley.’ This being said, we have six tungsten carbide manufacturers within thirty minutes of our facility. This enables us to have a very good relationship with carbide manufacturers when it comes to competitive pricing and better deliveries. We have worked diligently to build strong working relationships with Basic Carbide, Innovative Carbide and Vista Metals. Having these suppliers in our own backyard is an advantage when it comes to purchasing carbide preforms,” says Ken.

Elizabeth Carbide Components is looking to diversify even further into new areas to better navigate any economic problems that might arise. The company has grown to be a leader in its region and will continue to grow into the future. The team has plans to manufacture various types of tooling in manufacturing cans, shaping and forming wire, tooling to manufacture components for the automotive industry, metal stamping and ammunitions, the battery industry, and the textile industry, among others. “We want to continue to service all of the valued customers that we have and also grow with new ones,” says Smola.

The post Next-Level Manufacturing Capabilities in Custom Tooling<p class="company">Elizabeth Carbide Components</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Kaiser Premier traces its roots to the Colorado-based Premier Oilfield Equipment Company, which built hydro excavators and distributed through Caterpillar dealerships. These truck-mounted excavators primarily served the oil and gas field through both the exploration and pipelaying markets.

But that changed in 2014 with a major slowdown in oil and with Caterpillar bowing out of the vocational-truck business. With the company facing an uncertain future, it searched for investors to no avail.

“I went to all the typical financial institutions, as well as strategic buyers that are already in our market space in the U.S.,” recalls present CEO Dan Weber, who was initially hired as a consultant.

Meeting of minds
His search led him to Lichtenstein, in Europe, where Kaiser AG Chairman Markus Kaiser is the latest of his family to lead Kaiser and its various subsidiaries. Weber’s timing was fortunate; Kaiser was looking to expand its American holdings, and had in fact been eyeing Premier Oilfield Equipment as a suitable vehicle for Kaiser’s advanced technology.

The deal that the two men put together was formalized in May 2017. Kaiser Premier was born. As one of the Kaiser family of business entities around the world, Kaiser Premier would benefit from international financing and globally-leading technology.

With Kaiser’s support for the company, Kaiser Premier could press on with manufacturing and distributing its hydro excavators. With strategic intent, it formed a subsidiary division, Kaiser Rental, shortly after Kaiser Premier’s formation.

As well as expanding the business, this action was intended as a clear statement to the business community at large. As Weber explains: “We felt we needed to reassure the marketplace that the chassis issues are behind us.”

Thanks to the rental process, client companies could now sample (and purchase) Kaiser Premier’s hydro excavators and sewer cleaner recyclers. From a production capacity of two new hydro excavators per month in July 2017, the company can now put ten on the road every month.

New products, new performance
Kaiser Premier’s CV Series, the latest in its hydro excavators, is the culmination of decades of development. Powered by a Robushi three-lobe PD blower, these hydro excavators have a suction power of 6,600 cubic feet of air per minute with a vacuum level of up to 27” of Hg.

The CV’s design provides 342 degrees of boom rotation, and is able reach 26 feet out or 20 feet down without any additional suction hose extensions required. An internal 700,000 BTU boiler provides hot water as needed for cold weather applications.

This ruggedness and reliability showcases Kaiser’s global presence. The company designed its trucks for deployment in harsh conditions such as the Canadian oil fields, thereby creating a system capable of doing its job under any condition, as Weber remarks: “It’s a very robust, strong, simple design, and over the course of the last few years… we have started reintroducing the hydro excavator back into the market.”

Kaiser Premier’s advanced technology also extends to truck-mounted sewer cleaning systems. The company’s trucks are able to service any sewer line, from 6-inch to 100-inch pipes. Proprietary Kaiser technology allows Kaiser Premier’s trucks to save and recycle water during cleaning, reducing cleaning times.

Weber estimates that cleaning productivity improves by between 50 to 150 percent. “This is the technology that, over the past year and a half, we’ve been introducing to the North American market,” he says. “Recycling is a mature technology in Europe, but an emerging technology in North America. With over 2,000 recyclers delivered to the global market, Kaiser is the definitive leader in the industry,” Weber added.

Kaiser Premier’s AquaStar line of sewer cleaners, with its advanced KDU jetting pump, delivers water at up to 132 gallons per minute (gpm) at a pressure of up to 2,900 psi. Its large hose reel capacity of up to 985 feet of jetting hose and 55.6 feet of suction hose largely negates the use of suction tube extensions. The placement of the vacuum pump inside the fresh water chamber helps reduce noise, cool the system and increase suction power due to shortened suction lines.

In addition to these improvements, both the CV and AquaStar utilize Kaiser innovations from around the world to increase efficiency and safety. Advances in automation now allow operators to operate trucks remotely through full radio control, with an intuitive LCD display delivering all relevant feedback on some models.

Finally, KAISERteleservice allows for unprecedented remote diagnostics, allowing service engineers to access all data and adjust service parameters remotely.

International benefits
These innovations are the product of Kaiser’s international focus, true in both Lichtenstein and Colorado. “We sell our product in multiple countries all around the world, so the technology has been developed and proven in various conditions,” Weber says. “The conditions of a sewer pipe in Houston, Texas, are very different from the conditions of a sewer pipe in New York City.”

As part of the Kaiser family, Kaiser Premier benefits from some of the most rigorous testing and advanced technology available today. On a local and international level, the company is continuously receiving feedback from clients and operators.

“This is a constant cycle that never ends,” Weber explains. “We have over 30 engineers on staff to support this improvement and development. It’s our firm belief that we can distinguish ourselves by having a technology better than anything else on the market.”

As an example, Kaiser Premier has been continuously refining the water filtration system on its sewer cleaners to minimize or prevent the chronic issue of clogging. The company has managed to only require single filtration, no mean feat.

Rigorous testing has also resulted in a liquid-ring hydro excavator, a first for the industry. “We’re the only manufacturer in the world… that provides a liquid-ring vacuum pump in the hydro excavation application,” Weber says. This liquid ring mitigates risk by removing the possibility of metal-on-metal contact, eliminating the risk of sparks and explosions.

Like any Kaiser product, these new vacuum pumps endure rigorous testing to ensure they work anytime, anyplace. “That’s an advantage of our existing product technology,” Weber concludes. “We’re taking a large leap forward by introducing this application.”

Kaiser Premier’s innovation is now being extended to adapting existing Kaiser products to the U.S. market. The company’s trademark walking excavators, its mainstay in all-terrain excavation, are being utilized in steep cliff work in the Rocky Mountains to swampland clean-up projects in Florida.

Thanks to their unique design, the walking excavators eliminate the need for environmentally-disruptive rigging. “This excavator has been proven to work in some very severe conditions – 30, 40 degree slopes,” Weber remarks. In true Kaiser fashion, the excavators are also highly automated, with independently functioning arms requiring little input from an operator.

Needed: a few good people
Yet, as Kaiser Premier moves forward under its new banner, it faces the growing pains of any expanding company. Finding qualified personnel remains a perpetual challenge, particularly skilled-trades professionals such as welders and machine operators.

Growing from an initial workforce of 25, Kaiser Premier now boasts over 100 employees, and Weber says the company plans to continue its bounce back – but with caveats.

“We see us growing to 150 employees within the next three years, but we’re going to need qualified people to make sure we do not, in any way, suffer from a lapse in quality, design and representation.”

To ensure smooth growth, he and his team are striving to build a new, strong, workplace culture at Kaiser Premier. Formalized top-down leadership-training classes place a heavy emphasis on personal development, delicately balancing the act of motivating employees without creating negative repercussions.

But Weber says the risk is worth the reward. “The purpose of it is so we can understand our strengths and our tendencies, so that by understanding them, we’ll be able to work forward together and challenge each other in areas where we might not otherwise, because we’re concerned that we might be stepping on each other’s’ toes.”

The post The Phoenix of Colorado<p class="company">Kaiser Premier</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Founded in 1972 to manufacture mining equipment, Petro-Tech quickly rebranded itself to serve the growing oil field in Canada’s Prairie Provinces. “Because of the low cost associated with heating, people didn’t worry about wasting heat,” Business Development Manager Phil Sepkowski reflects.

But, with a growing shift into building and heating efficiency, Petro-Tech has found its technology in more and more demand. Petro-Tech prides itself on making the most efficient equipment humanly possible, conserving and utilizing waste heat.

Petro-Tech’s skid-mounted heat medium packages provide up to 40 MMBTUH, (million British Thermal Units per hour), fully inclusive with pumps, heat exchangers, piping and an intrinsic control panel providing all heat-related data. The company’s thermal systems utilize glycol, and its related compounds, in addition to hot oil to provide heating for buildings and equipment of all sizes.

On a smaller scale, Petro-Tech also provides all equipment involved in the heating process, including heat exchangers (both liquid- and air-cooled), boilers and reboilers. The company’s research team works both internally and with other companies to continually push the envelope of heating technology.

“There are some really, really bright engineering minds out there that have been working on this for a long time,” says Sepkowski. “We’re doing what we can in-house, and then we deal with smaller companies that are working with us to fine-tune our equipment and make it even better.”

White-hot precision
In addition to its wide array of heat-medium packages, Petro-Tech also provides process furnaces for use in the petroleum and natural gas refining process. The process requires long run-times with little shutdown, necessitating high efficiency and reliability. As in its heat medium technology, Petro-Tech prides itself on its precision engineering and building skill.

Alloy coil materials and certified welding techniques ensure high durability, while Petro-Tech’s meticulous quality-control methods guarantee full accountability. The company also utilizes PMI (positive material identification) to verify the elemental integrity of all metal components, further ensuring product integrity. Low nitrous oxide (NOx) burners reduce environmental impact, and Petro-Tech’s modular construction methods helps reduce build times.

Meeting client needs
With nearly 50 years of business experience, Petro-Tech justifiably presents itself as a precision design/build firm. Many clients, particularly subcontracted engineering firms, provide Petro-Tech with precise and meticulous specifications. Petro-Tech, in turn, creates a turnkey solution with its own in-house engineers.

In Sepkowski’s words, this degree of total control is a testament to the faith Petro-Tech’s clients place in it. “They trust us to design the equipment and ultimately provide the guarantee that the equipment’s going to function according to the parameters and conditions they require.”

A reason for this trust stems from Petro-Tech’s localization. The company’s products are assembled in its 75,000 square foot Calgary manufacturing facility, and Sepkowski estimates that between 70 and 90 percent of all parts are sourced from within Canada. With no off-shore assembly work, the company can manage every aspect of quality control and maintain its high production standards.

Many of Petro-Tech’s clients, with offices in Calgary and the surrounding area, can easily visit Petro-Tech’s facility and see their orders being fabricated and assembled with their own eyes. “A lot of equipment gets purchased offshore,” Sepkowski remarks, “so to see what’s going on with your equipment at any given time, the end user has to trust that that manufacturer is doing exactly what they’ve been asked to. In our case, they can come and personally look at it, touch it, review it.”

In addition to this personal touch, Petro-Tech provides aftermarket service as well, managing every step from fabrication to installation and subsequent field service.

Relying on people
As a proud Canadian manufacturer in a robust sector, Petro-Tech recognizes that the precision it requires depends on a talented and committed workforce. To enhance workforce cohesion, the company fosters an atmosphere of employee empowerment.

“Anybody who has any concept or idea that can affect our profitability, our performance, our quality – everyone is encouraged to come to the table with that opportunity,” Sepkowski says. “That’s the best way to recruit.” He notes that this atmosphere of empowerment has attracted many employees – including himself – to work at Petro-Tech. “Empowering people always encourages retention.”

This empowerment helps Petro-Tech remain competitive in a crowded field, ensuring it can hire the most passionate and talented workers in the industry.

The company currently designs heat-recovery systems capable of dealing with flue or exhaust gas temperatures of up to 1,200°F (650°C) and capture the heat in thermal oils, glycol mixtures, inlet, air or steam. But Petro-Tech intends to lead the way in developing super-efficient heaters. “The technology exists right now,” Sepkowski remarks, “but we’re going to build it better.”

The goal is to install this new-generation equipment into all new buildings, and retrofit existing structures to handle the new heat-efficiency standards. While it will be a long-term investment, the potential returns are exciting. “What we’ve discovered so far is there is the potential for 20 to 50 percent heating efficiency savings,” Sepkowski reports, “so it’s very, very much the way of the future – not only for our organization, but for many others.”

Emission-free
Petro-Tech’s new move into heat efficiency and emission reduction is well-timed. Canada’s Federal Government has pledged to make the country net emission-free by 2050. On a smaller scale, numerous provinces such as Ontario and Nova Scotia have announced the same goal. Others are even more ambitious, with British Columbia enacting that all new buildings must produce net zero emissions by 2032.

At the corporate level, large businesses such as Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL), one of Canada’s largest oil and gas extractors, are also working to be net zero emitters.

Lost heat, lost value
In addition to the obvious environmental benefits, increased heating efficiency has equally obvious cost-saving benefits. “Heat equals value. It’s never been thought of that way, but it really does,” Sepkowski remarks. “Any heat can be turned into a bottom-line reduction in cost savings.”

Oil firms in western Canada produce most of Canada’s waste heat and carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, western provinces are now paying significant carbon taxes – a strong source of regional contention during the recent Federal election. Higher heat efficiency rates will also reduce carbon taxes to businesses, which Sepkowski says will be a net gain for all. “Anything that can be used to reduce that is basically going to be paying the carbon tax, or paying less of it.”

As Petro-Tech looks to the future, the company plans to move even further into precision design and manufacturing while also moving toward a more energy-efficient offering and leveraging new technologies to help customers reduce their carbon footprint. The company is taking its products to new levels of efficiencies and offering products that allow producers to meet their carbon emissions standards. As more businesses, municipalities and entire nations work to reduce emissions and improve heat efficiency standards, Petro-Tech has its sights set on becoming the leading manufacturer in this new sector.

The post Raising the Bar – and the Standards for Heat Efficiency<p class="company">Petro-Tech Heat Technology</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The company also sells automation solutions such as pump controllers and multi-point injection systems, as well as pump parts and accessories.

“Ninety-five percent of our pumps are proprietary,” states Paul Brisbin, Regional Manager.

TXAM differentiates itself through a combination of leading-edge products, huge selection, and excellent customer service. “We have a patented design in our [pump] housing that gives a lot longer life to the packing and a lot longer life to the motor,” Brisbin notes. “We use an all-stainless-steel housing, so [our pumps] are very durable.”

The company’s HBT series of solar and electric pumps are among its most popular products. The HBT2 electric pump comes in either single or double-head format, can work to a maximum pressure of 6,000 PSI/400 Bar, and has a switch that can convert power from AC to DC for locales where AC power is not reliable. The HBT1 solar pump, meanwhile, can work to a maximum pressure of 2,000 PSI/140 Bar, comes in single or double-head format, has an innovative pump design, and is environmentally friendly and low-maintenance.

TXAM also carries a full line of Pneumatic pumps: the PTP2500 pneumatic pump, the 3500 and the 6500, which all come in single-head format and can handle a maximum pressure up to 6500 PSI; and the TX-BP beam pump, which is available either as single or double head format and can handle a maximum pressure of 1,000 PSI/70 Bar. An extended arm feature is available with the TX-BP Beam Pump.

Specialty items like the HBT EXP series of ‘explosion-proof’ pumps are certified to work in Class 1 and Division 2 areas such as oilfields. Safety is paramount in such environments, where even a small external spark can trigger an explosion.

TXAM also offers advanced solutions such as the IPC 2000 tank monitor and pump controller which lets operators remotely control their pumps and tanks from a laptop or cellphone. The control can monitor pump delivery and tank level, pinpoint pump location via GPS, and can be programmed to send out reports and alarms.

The 600TSP SCADA pump controller has tank monitoring and proportional control. Pump delivery can be controlled remotely, and the product offers an instant network connection to gather and analyze data in real time.

Thanks to such devices, customers can “get up in the morning, look at their computer and say ‘I don’t need to go out and check the chemicals today because everything’s running fine,’” says Brisbin. “The patented system we have will tell them if a pump is not running, and it also makes the pump very accurate and delivers exactly what you tell it to deliver.”

This is particularly good news for anyone with pumps in cold-winter climates such as “North Dakota [or] some location that you might not get to for three weeks because of the weather,” he says. These controllers are part of a general trend towards automation in the pump sector.

“We’ve got a lot of automation projects going on right now. One of these is the multipoint injection system. For a fifty-well pad of directional gas wells, instead of having fifty pumps, we’ve got multipoint systems that are very sophisticated. You can have up to sixteen injection points with one pump. It makes for a much smaller footprint on the location. The multipoint system is a new thing right now,” he says.

The multipoint injection system also ensures repeatable, accurate injection rates. An operator can enter the desired injection rate in gallons or quarts per day, and the system automatically takes care of the rest.

TXAM also sells parts and accessories, from stainless steel tubing and tube fittings to stainless steel atomizers, valves, bushings and nuts, site glasses, battery boxes, and gas scrubbers.

Not only does it make good pumps, but it also stocks a huge variety of them. “We carry a larger inventory than any of our competitors. Nobody comes close,” states Brisbin, who says the company maintains a huge inventory “on the ground in over eighteen locations.”

In addition to Texas where the company has multiple offices, it has offices or field offices in North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Arkansas, Colorado, and West Virginia. TXAM has international representatives in South America as well.

These locations offer a wide inventory and excellent customer support, and staff are happy to help clients over the phone or Internet, in-person, or in the field with pump installation and repair, field work, technical assistance, and engineering.

“Service, reliability, and availability is what really separates us. We’re on call seven days a week. We have people that cover weekends. Somebody needs something, we can get it to them,” says Brisbin. “It’s not unusual for some of our guys to be out at one o’clock in the morning replacing a pump or helping someone repair one.”

Thanks to this combination of excellent products, wide selection, broad geographic reach, and customer-focus, TXAM has been expanding at a fast clip. “The company now has roughly three times the employees that we did when I came to work for TXAM in July of 2011; [we had] only one remote location and now we have 18,” says Brisbin.

There is discussion about opening a new field office in Alaska. The Alaska office won’t open, however, “until we have the right person. That’s the hardest thing and the most important thing—getting the right person,” he says.

Given its rapid rate of expansion, the company keeps certain criteria in mind when considering new personnel. In terms of service-technicians, it likes people who are “willing to work. You grab a guy that’s married, got a kid or two, and then wants to work, wants the overtime, wants to grow with the company. That’s the guy you’re looking for. We’re easy to work for, but you must be self-motivated. As far as a sales guy, we look for somebody again who is a self-starter and doesn’t need to be managed,” he explains.

“Staff who are hired are treated very well and as a company we want to keep our people whole when issues come up in life. It flows down from the very top of this company. We’re responsible for people. If you take care of the people, they will take care of you,” says Brisbin.

When it comes to promoting itself, TXAM relies heavily on face-to-face marketing and regularly attends trade shows and industry conferences.

In August 2019, the firm showcased new pump automation controllers and tank monitoring systems at the NACE Central Area Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Among other products, it demonstrated its 600TSP SCADA pump controller and IPC 2000 cellular pump controller and gateway tank monitor.

The company attended the Oklahoma Oil & Gas Expo held October 10, 2019. TXAM Pumps was a Platinum level sponsor of the event and displayed its latest pump automation systems at the show.

“You’ve got to be like a hound dog. You’ve got to have your nose on the ground, going door to door, being in front of people. That’s what we do,” affirms Brisbin.

Having the right people and focusing on keeping them is central to getting through economic downturns. TXAM tries to “get the right people and make sure the guys who get out there and get business understand what we’re responsible for. We’re responsible for all the people that we hired. We’re now responsible for them and their livelihoods and their family,” he says.

Moving into new markets is another way to get through any doldrums in the oil and gas sector. “We’re looking for other revenue streams now outside of pumps, simply because the market is only so big, and we want to grow this business as big as it can get,” explains Brisbin.

For example, he has been recently looking into the commercial possibilities of well-head containment products.

Despite this, TXAM remains committed to its chemical injection pump product line.

Brisbin has a clear vision of the future. “I see us continuing to grow and get smarter,” he says. “I see us turning to more automation. Five years from now, I see us with probably two or three more facilities throughout the U.S. There’s a lot of business potentially in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.”

The post High-End Pumps and Old-Fashioned Customer Service<p class="company">TXAM Pumps</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

While the Acterra Group was formally incorporated in 2007, the history of its member companies stretches back to the 1950s.

Cooper’s grandfather, an employee for Standard Oil, was “basically running around Iowa fixing gas pumps,” his grandson recalls. As a cost-saving measure, Standard Oil fired all its salaried employees to rehire them as contract labor. Cooper’s grandfather now found himself self-employed, billing Standard Oil for services rendered. But he adapted, and decided to form his own company.

As the family business grew, it consolidated its niche in the repairing and maintenance of fuel equipment while expanding its reach. In the 1970s, Cooper’s father and grandfather jointly founded a storage tank manufacturing company, seeing a gap in the market: “Most manufacturers were too busy to get the tanks that were needed, so they decided to build them themselves,” he explains.

Serial entrepreneur
The business expanded significantly in the late 1970s when Cooper’s father, Bernard D. Cooper, a “serial entrepreneur,” took over. “Every time he saw a new problem, he formed a new business.”

When Tad and his brother Terry joined in the 1990s, they further refined the family business from what Cooper calls a “convenience store service” to a group capable of servicing fuel systems across the United States, with many federal government contracts.

Today, the Acterra Group maintains branch offices across much of the continental United States, though its headquarters remains in Iowa. In addition to fuel system installation and maintenance, Acterra’s technicians also perform electrical construction and maintenance, ranging from home repairs to major retrofits and new power grids utilizing solar and wind power. From the Midwest to the Rocky Mountains and beyond, Acterra performs maintenance and construction for any project.

Acterra Group’s long experience and broad reach have made it a natural choice for more complex and demanding jobs.

Attractively difficult
“There are a lot of companies in our business that go into the gasoline station world, which is fairly low-margin, fairly repetitive,” Cooper says. “We like to take on more difficult projects. That’s why we like to spend a lot of time in the federal government space.”

Federal projects by nature have more requirements and oversight than private sector work, making it sensible that only professional and experienced businesses tackle them.

Acterra Group has engaged in some federal work for decades, but now, thanks to its long experience and proven competence, is growing much more involved on federal projects. “They’re much more detailed, in technical requirements and safety requirements, than any standard gas station,” Cooper says.

The group is now finishing a major project at Offutt Air Force Base, just outside Omaha, Nebraska. The base is headquarters to, among others, U.S. Strategic Command and the 55th Air Wing, the largest unit of U.S. Air Combat Command. Acterra was contracted for repairs and reconstruction following unprecedented flooding along the Missouri River in 2019. Heavy winter snowfall and the wettest spring on record set new river levels in 42 locations.

“The entire base was flooded,” Cooper recalls. “We spent a lot of time and effort reconstructing fueling systems over there.”

The Offutt project is typical of Acterra’s work for the U.S. federal government, particularly the military. Cooper estimates 90 percent of the group’s federal work is in the defense sector, helping keep American military installations in fighting shape.

“There are bases, whether Air Force or Army, in every single state,” Cooper says. “They may be a small National Guard base, they may be a large airbase, but there are bases throughout the country and they almost all have some kind of fuel.”

With U.S. military spending increasing annually, he sees no reason for this trend not to continue. Particularly as older bases, many built during the Cold War and earlier, see infrastructure and equipment coming to the end of its lifespan.

Driving on asphalt
But while Acterra is heavily involved in defense projects, its reach extends beyond that. The group is expanding strongly into the asphalt sector, working on the design and construction of a major asphalt processing facility in Colorado.

With Acterra’s long history in manufacturing and maintaining storage tanks the group is an obvious choice to construct a facility for storing this intractable substance.

As a longtime player in the fuel service, Acterra is a member of numerous trade organizations across the U.S., including the Steel Tank Institute and Steel Plate Fabricators Association (STI/SPFA); the Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI), and has recently joined the National Petroleum Management Agency (NPMA). Despite Acterra’s long independent history, Cooper recognizes the benefit of professional cooperation and collaboration.

“The ideas, the engineering and technical specifications that come from those groups, they’re used every single day,” he says. “Anytime we can further our knowledge through trade organizations and get into different markets, it just makes more sense for us.”

Rare talents
Yet despite its large geographic reach, the Acterra Group remains a small employer with around 50 employees. Its central location in the Midwest, while geographically good, also has abnormally low unemployment – which affects Acterra. The group is now working extensively with external recruiters, turning to outside talent to get the skilled workers it needs. “Wherever we can, we try to hire,” Cooper says.

However, Acterra is also heavily reliant on internal mentorship and advancement. Employees are encouraged to look for, recruit and foster talented workers. “That’s actually been a very positive thing for us, with internal sources finding outside people and bringing them in.”

He relates a personal story of mentoring a younger worker, the son of a former Acterra manager, who is now in his fifth year of employment with Acterra. This personal relationship, Cooper remarks, is exactly the model of leadership his father put into place. “That is why we’re in business, to take care of our family but also to take care of our customers, and definitely our employees’ families.”

To nourish these fostering/mentoring relationships, Acterra makes sure to provide competitive salaries and benefits packages for its highly skilled employees.

As so much of Acterra’s work is contractual, the group’s employees already enjoy a large degree of autonomy. Cooper and his management team respect that, generally taking a more hands-off approach than comparable companies: “That’s the one thing I’m big on, to try to let the people that do the work – and know what they’re doing – have the freedom to do it.”

Yet, while Acterra’s employees remain staunchly loyal, finding new qualified workers remains a perennial problem. “We have a large backlog of business,” Cooper relates, “but if I don’t have the people to do it, that doesn’t do any good. And I’m not helping my customers if I don’t have the people to do it.”

It’s complicated
Acterra’s expertise proves in this case to be a double-edged sword, as many of its jobs are complex enough to require a intensive training – which, as a small business, the group cannot yet afford. “You can’t just step in and do my work if you’re just right off the street,” Cooper remarks.

As a result, Acterra does offer certain in-house training. Many of Acterra’s federal jobs require high degrees of professional qualifications and licenses, meaning annual training if Acterra wishes to keep its contracts. “Most of the work we do has a certification behind it, so that individual has to keep that training going on every year.”

Driven by the difficulties of finding suitable staff, Acterra Group is now moving into more automated practices. Laser cutting systems and robotic welding increase efficiency and raise quality, freeing the group’s labor force to perform more complex work.

The group is also examining alternative energy for its facilities. “We’re personally looking at solar for many of our campuses,” Cooper says, seeing not only a more environmentally-friendly option but also financial opportunity.

As the Acterra Group looks forward to its next sixty years, it hopes to continue to deliver its high degree of service. With offices from Chicago to Denver, the group under Cooper’s leadership intends to further move into tank manufacturing and asphalt. “There’s a lot of manufacturing that goes on in those oilfield areas,” he remarks.

If the group’s new asphalt plant in Colorado proves successful, this could be a bold new beginning for Acterra.

Sadly, Bernard D. Cooper, founder and visionary behind the company, passed away in late December of 2019. His obituary can be viewed at https://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2019/Dec/Bernard-D-Cooper/.

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