Most of the focus of plant/mill management is understandable on the “Manufacturing” processes. Attentions are on improving productivity and equipment reliability. That makes perfect sense, production equipment is the heart of the machine that is the plant or mill. The facility or physical plant is there to protect the processes and tie them all together with a physical structure designed specifically to house and protect the manufacturing and supporting operations. 

The plant or mill infrastructure is almost always an afterthought. Permanent repairs to it are put off or substituted with temporary fixes just to get to the next outage only to be put off again due to some unexpected failure or priority that arises. 

Many of these situations will become chronic and could put a strain on normal operations or cause them to be adjusted to less than optimal levels. Left unresolved, these problems could lead to critical failures, safety issues or issues

Concrete floors in almost any industry take a real beating on a daily basis. And with all of the traffic in a modern operation, they have to be in service as close to 24/7 as possible. Nobody can justify changing the traffic flow for any length of time unless there’s no other choice. 

Fortunately, there are many innovative options designed to repair floors and joints that require only a minimal time out of service. Most areas can be repaired and opened back up to service in as little as a matter of minutes. 

Even with all kinds of options, most people aren’t focused on these repairs. Some think that it’s just something that’s too complicated for them to tackle. Others don’t think they have the time to do it. The truth is, most of the time, these repairs are done with whatever is available. Give us a call when you are planning to do your next repair and we’ll help you with the right materials, equipment and technical help you need to do it right, fast

Protective systems for concrete can be as simple as a thin film coating or as intricate as a multi-layered reinforced system. In most cases, you get the protection you pay for. More complicated means more expensive and usually better protection. But a higher level of protection often means its more complicated to install. Enter the “Polymer” concrete.

Polymer concrete is the protective system that doesn’t require specialized equipment, elaborate preparation between coats or any special skills. If you can pour grout or concrete, you can place this material. And, the level of protection is extremely high. They can be made slip resistant or abrasion resistant and they come in various bases resistant to most common industrial chemicals.

Use them to repair, encapsulate or totally replace damaged concrete pump foundations. They are also a good option for re-surfacing containment areas, sumps and trenches. Give us a call to find out which

You need a versatile and durable flooring material for your demanding conditions, but, you’d prefer a product made from renewable, sustainable sources. Verdia has found a better, greener way to products the high quality flooring materials to meet your needs. 

New Bio-based technology has finally allowed for more environmentally friendly products to be created for your toughest applications without sacrificing performance. VerdeFloor flooring systems represent the next generation of polyurethane concrete technology. This unique technology gives floors exceptional resistance to aggressive chemicals as well as mechanical and thermal shock. VerdeFloor Bio-Based flooring systems utilize domestically produced soy bean polyols and environmentally friendly packaging.

Coating containment areas in tank farms and loading areas can be pretty easy if you can get the protection you need with a thin film coating. These coatings are easy to apply can be easily repaired  when they are damaged. The key is in making sure your get the right protection for your specific chemical. Remember, to qualify for secondary containment, the coating has to survive long enough to hold the chemical in the containment area for 72 hours. 

Consult a good chemical resistance chart to make sure you’re choosing the best coating for your chemicals. Look for products that are made for “Secondary Containment”. You need 72 hours, so don’t waste your money on heavy duty systems designed to containment the chemicals indefinitely in some sort of primary containment vessel.

Active water leaks in your concrete can be more than just a nuisance. Everybody has them. That area that stays wet all the time, especially after it rains. As long as it’s not inconvenient or posing a safety hazard, most people just overlook it. “It’s just always wet, that’s all.”

But, the truth is, those concrete structures are reinforced with rebar. The rebar adds a great deal of strength to the structure. However, the rebar is also very susceptible to damage from corrosion. And, all that water brings the oxygen with it that drives the process forming rust and eventually concrete failure. 

Stopping the active leak is critical to stopping the flow of water. This is the first step to stopping the degrading of your concrete’s ability to perform as it was intended to. 

Your concrete basin may be leaking, but there’s no way you can take it down to do any repairs. The whole plant is dependent on the cooling tower running. If you were to coat the inside you’d have to have several days to prep and coat and then you’d have to let the new coating cure before filling the basin. That could be days or even a week. 

But, if you could apply a coating that required minimal prep and could be applied to the wet concrete, you’d have time for that. With the advancements of cement chemistry and the variety of additives used in products these days, cement-based coatings are a real option for this application. Flexible cement waterproofing slurries can bridge cracks in the existing concrete. They are easy to apply and take little to no additional equipment. These products can resist up to 160 ft of water pressure and have very good adhesion to concrete. 

Single-point lubricators are ideal for equipment requiring regular lubrication located in difficult to get to or high hazard areas. Self-contained units can dispense grease or oil with worry free consistency and can be mounted un to 15 feet aware from the bearing. Dispensing time can vary from 1 to 12 months and can be turned on and off for scheduled down time. 

Many of the vibration issues that appear as the equipment settles in over time could be averted with better installation techniques. Many of the tasks associated with equipment setting are often considered less important than say alignment or leveling. These other tasks are assumed to be foolproof, easy or even unimportant. These are the less glamorous tasks, but they are critical to the reliability of the equipment. These are tasks like anchoring and grouting. 

Anchoring is critical to holding the equipment down to keep the equipment in the right position in relation to the other components of the system. They also keep the equipment from moving during rotation which could create issue with the moving parts of the system. 

Precision grouts are the key to evenly transferring unused forces from the equipment into the foundation and eventually into the ground. Without the grout, these unused forces bounce around in the equipment as vibration.

Torquing is a critical step in your installation of flanges and equipment, but, it is just so time consuming. You could have flanges with 16 or 60 bolts or turbines with nearly 100. Take the sheer number of bolts times the time it takes to turn them with a hydraulic wrench times the number of passes you have to make to get each flange done. Wow, that’s a lot of minutes. There are a few options to help you speed up this operation and reduce your time to something reasonable. 

Make sure your hydraulic pumps have multiple outlets. Pumps that operate up to 4 tools at once are readily available for rent or purchase. This is good for smaller tools and the time you’re saving is the moving of tools for each bolt. 

Air powered nut runners are a calibrated option to get bolts tightened quickly to close to your final torque. This allows for a quick finish with the hydraulic tools for better accuracy. Of course, there is always a battery powered