by siteadmin | May 28, 2014 | Impreglon News
Southwest Impreglon Expansion Completed!
Southwest Impreglon completed its expansion project in late April 2003. The new construction increased the production area by an additional 12,000 sq. ft. and increased large part handling capability in the process.
Pictured clockwise from top left are the new coating spray booth (16’wide x 16’ tall x 45’ long), the new coating furnace (12’ wide x 12’ tall x 42’ long) with 850 degree F heating capability, the new blast room (15’ wide x 14’ tall x 45’ long) and the new 10-ton overhead crane system.
According to George Butler, President & Co-Principal, “The originall coating facility was always built with expansion in mind to better serve the company’s ever expanding customer base as well as its continual addition of new coating processes. Now that the expansion has been completed, we invite our customers to challenge us with some of their larger parts requiring coatings application.”
by siteadmin | May 28, 2014 | Impreglon News
Southwest Impreglon Achieves ISO 9001:2000
As of August 12, 2003, Southwest Impreglon became ISO 9001:2000 Certified. This has now replaced the obsolete ISO 9002 standard to which the company had been previously been certified.
In speaking with Terry Bourdon-Quality Assurance Manager for Southwest Impreglon, he said meeting the criteria for the new standards was tough, but well worth the time it took to get there. Achieving certification required hours of close review and usually, revisions in the company’s quality manual, procedures, work instructions and other forms.
Asked why ISO certification was so important, he responded that “Certification was important to us because it is recognized worldwide as an accepted standard of quality. When companies can accurately document their quality systems, they can compare their systems against a recognized quality standard and improve what they offer to their customers. Also, because ISO certification is an understood standard, companies can use it to gauge and select the vendors or sub contractors they work with. Having successfully gone through the ISO review process and achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification, customers can trust that Southwest Impreglon has already asked the tough questions about its own quality systems”
by siteadmin | May 28, 2014 | Impreglon News
Southwest Impreglon Now Offers Peek Powder Coatings
Southwest Impreglon has begun offering the application of Peek Polymer Coatings. Peek polymer is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic which is widely regarded as having the best combination of properties for harsh environments. The product is formulated to produce durable, impact resistant pin-hole free coatings from 15-25 mils thickness.
The coating can be machined for those applications requiring closer tolerances. Peek polymers coatings possess the following properties:
- Abrasion Resistance
- Wear Resistance
- Heat Resistance
- Chemical Inertness
- Hydrolysis Resistance
- Dielectric Properties
- FDA Conformance
- Purity
- Low Fire, Smoke and Toxicity
For more information on the unique properties of Peek Polymer Coatings; please contact your Southwest Impreglon Representative.
by siteadmin | May 28, 2014 | Impreglon News
Impreglon Coating Technologies Yield Breakthrough Performance in the search for Energy
As our quest for petroleum-based energy takes us deeper and deeper beneath the Earth’s crust, the technologies employed not only become more specialized, but the cost of drilling for these precious resources becomes a high-stakes enterprise few can afford to lose. Consequently, even small increases in productivity can have a big impact on the bottom line. This is especially apparent when considering the cost of drilling a moderate-sized well can easily run more than $250,000 a day, with completion times measured in weeks or even months.
This is the challenge presented to engineers at Southwest Impreglon: Discover a new coating that allows ultra-sticky shale particles to release downhole and transport out via the water-based drilling fluid.
“We see challenges similar to this on a regular basis,” said Impreglon president and chief chemist, George Butler. “What we bring to bear is a team that understands how to analyze a technical problem and apply the full spectrum of available technologies to a solution – or in many cases, create new solutions.”
The problem was shale would bond so tightly to downhole equipment, drilling and mud circulation became impossible. In fact, they needed hammers and chisels to free equipment retrieved from these dense, gummy formulations.
Working in partnership with an international oil tool manufacturer, Impreglon began testing a variety of coatings, application processes and curing methods. It quickly became apparent that the oldest, and perhaps best known coating, was the most effective. “Sometimes, solutions are staring you right in the face, you need the expertise to see and apply them,” said Mr. Butler. In this case an existing technology had almost ideal characteristics, but required some innovative modification of the binding approach to match the unique demands downhole.
Coating downhole tools with Polytetrafluoroethelyne (PTFE) wasn’t a new idea. But throughout three years of testing, PTFE proved to be the most effective coating for releasing the cement like cuttings. The problem was PTFE’s relatively weak abrasion resistance and wear characteristics were more than a small problem under these extreme conditions. After hundreds of test combinations, scores of modified application processes and countless hours under laboratory and field conditions, the right formulation of abrasion resistance and PTFE’s fast release characteristics finally came together. When all the data was compared, Impreglon and downhole tool engineers were seeing performance rate increases up to fifty percent. A significant enough increase to begin patenting the process.
Due to greatly improved application techniques and a better understanding of molecular bonding at the substrate level, new coating formulations and new patents are today not nearly as rare as they were only a few years ago.
The team of petroleum and coating engineers saw superior lubricity, greater release characteristics, lower friction and excellent corrosion resistance. The results showed longer equipment life, less downtime, higher production and reduced maintenance. Impreglon’s chief chemist asserts that this isn’t an isolated case. According to Mr. Butler, coating engineers’ experience in many different fields gives them the edge in recognizing, applying, refining and proving very specific, fit-to-task solutions that are fine-tuned to many industry’s unique demands.
As with any design element, the greatest chance of success with coatings rests with design integration’s at the earliest phase. Good coating engineers can bring a wealth of process knowledge and application expertise to project designs. Coating engineers can also adapt preparation processes to any given alloy. Depending on the substrate, specific etching, treating and texturing are prerequisites to any application.
In the final analysis, the new generation of coatings provides design engineers another set of tools with which they can modify the nature of any given metal surface to fit the demands of virtually any conditions. Because, if that coating doesn’t already exist, chances are it can be formulated.
by siteadmin | May 28, 2014 | Impreglon News
Impreglon Undergoing Expansion
Southwest Impreglon is currently undergoing a construction project to expand its custom coating facility. According to George Butler, President and Co-Principal of Impreglon, the expansion is necessary in order to better serve its current and future customer base. The original coating facility was always built with expansion in mind. However, now with the addition of even more coating processes and services to its already more than 200 offerings, the company simply ran out of room.
The anticipated completion date for new construction is October 2002 and to become fully operational sometime in April 2003. The new construction will increase the production processing area by an additional 12,000 sq. feet and will increase the large part handling and weight capacity to 10-tons. Also included in the new construction will be the addition of a larger curing furnace to facilitate the processing of the larger and heavier parts. The inside dimensions of the furnace will be 12? x 12? x 40? long and will have an 850 degree F heating capability. Also added will be larger spray booths and blast rooms appropriately sized for the processing of the larger parts.
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