Tag Archives: Induron Protective Coatings

Is the U.S. Really Heading Toward Energy Independence?

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By John Anspach, Induron VP of Operations

Induron VP of Operations John AnspachWith the recent uptick in fuel prices, it wouldn’t appear to be the case.  However, a recent article in Chemical Processing indicates that significant strides are being made to really get there.

The likely biggest domestic energy development toward that end is the availability of gas from shale oil. New technology is allowing easier access to this enormous untapped energy resource.  Michael Cowen of the International Energy Agency (EIA) states that, “within five years, the U.S. is likely to break the record output high reached more than two decades ago, to flirt with the position of top world producer.” Imagine that… having greater output than the Saudis! This can be possible with efficient shale oil conversion, combined with investments in new pipelines.  If both methods are employed, it would significantly lower U.S. demand from oil imports, and move us closer to energy independence. Continue reading Is the U.S. Really Heading Toward Energy Independence? →

Corporate Values – Do they still have a place in today’s business environment?

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By Tex Enoch, Induron Sales Rep

Induron's Values: Integrity, Respect, Reliability, InnovationMore than 40 years ago, I went to work for my father, who had just started Pennsbury Coatings Corporation, a small, family-owned coatings manufacturing company. Work was different then – no fax machines, no internet, no cell phones (some of us refer to them as “the good ol’ days”).  We did business on land lines and through the Post Office.  We also refined the art of the sales call.  Back then, a contract was simply a hand shake.

Five years ago, I found myself unemployed and began looking for a company that represented what my father’s company stood for:  a company that did what it promised, provided reliable and cutting-edge products, treated its customers like valued friends and offered its customers help if they needed it.

Induron Protective Coatings is a small, family-owned business that has allowed me to thrive in an environment that trusts its employees to work for the betterment of the company, as well as the industries that it serves.  We try very hard to keep all the promises we make and never make a promise we can’t keep.  It is a philosophy that serves us well.  Continue reading Corporate Values – Do they still have a place in today’s business environment? →

Impacting Reliability

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By Davies Hood, Induron President

By Davies Hood, Induron President

Our Core Values here at Induron are Integrity, Respect, RELIABILTY and Innovation. I was reminded of the least referenced one of these while reading this article in “Chemical Processing.”

As industrial paint manufacturers, we are considered part of the chemical industry, not only by ourselves, but also by the U.S. government. This article begins with the statement, “Reliability improvement remains imperative for chemical makers,” and mentions two of our biggest suppliers – Air Products and Chemicals and Dow Chemicals.

At Induron, we regularly report our Cycle Count (read more about Cycle Count here), which is an internal measure of doing things correctly time after time. More accurately put, it’s a measure of reliability. We consistently score in the 0.15 – 0.25 range (the lower the better), which by all accounts is an industry outlier.

This article talks about how Air Products and Dow have both taken an inward-looking metric and turned it inside out. This places their focus more on their customers than just their internal processes, and puts reliability at the forefront.

Two comments by Wilbur Mok, Air Products vice president of North American tonnage gases, that I particularly appreciated are, “We took the best operating practices and shared them globally. So now we operate each plant the same way.” This led to Air Products “freeing up site teams to spend more time on higher value tasks, such as preventative maintenance, improvement projects and troubleshooting.” Continue reading Impacting Reliability →

Picasso’s Paint

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By Hayne Crum, Induron Chemist

Picasso's PaintI recently read an article about the paint Pablo Picasso used in his paintings. While you might think that a master like Picasso would use the finest paint available for canvas, that is not the case. Apparently, he used house paint. That’s right – the same paint that covered the exterior walls of homes was used on his masterpiece, “Red Armchair” and more.

Art historians speculate that Picasso is the first of the “masters” of the art world to have used this type of paint.

For centuries, artists mixed their own paint from fine oils and pigments. The paint that was made for commercial use (to decorate and protect houses and metals) simply was not good enough for fine artists’ portraits and paintings.

It was not until the beginning of the last century that commercial paint was processed well enough to produce a product that could live up to the high standards of an artist. However, that paint still used natural oils and ground pigments, and still had the problems that paint had for most of history – it cracked, faded and yellowed when exposed to air and natural light. These chemical processes were unavoidable with natural products.

However, over the years, technology has redefined how paints are produced. While some paints are still made the “old fashioned” way, newer paints are now much more durable and come in a huge array of pigments – paint colors that simply didn’t exist during Picasso’s lifetime. Continue reading Picasso’s Paint →

Let’s Face it – Linseed Oil Needs Help!

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By Kendall Smith, Induron Sales Rep

Let’s face it: when you’re trying to overcoat aged, failing coatings, badly weathered galvanized steel or even rusted carbon steel, linseed oil as a barrier coating needs all the fortification it can get.

Granted, modified linseed oil provides maximum wetting and penetration properties, as well as minimum curing stresses and disruption of the existing coating. But by itself, as a barrier coating, it would not hold out long against the elements (wind, rain, salt fog, sun, etc.).

So how do you get maximum barrier protection out of one high-build coat of modified linseed oil? Ask for it in the specification!

One purpose of a coatings specification is to be specific about what you want. High-build, properly pigmented linseed oil coatings have been providing excellent corrosion protection for 50 years when pigmented with functional pigments that provide an effective shield or barrier. Historically, once lead pigments were removed, those barrier properties have been best achieved with combinations of metallic zinc dust and other lamellar pigments, such as micaceous iron oxide and leafing aluminum.

When zinc is not used as galvanic protection (and at any concentration below 83 percent, it does NOT), it is best supplemented with platy-type pigments that orient themselves parallel with the substrate and overlap. These lamellar pigments align themselves much like mica. This lamellar formation creates a difficult pathway for the elements of corrosion to migrate through the system, and stops them from camping out on the vulnerable substrate, where corrosion cells will form and develop into pitting corrosion if moisture, salts and other corrosion inducers are left for any time at all.  Continue reading Let’s Face it – Linseed Oil Needs Help! →

What does “value” mean to you?

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Jeff White, Induron Sales Manager
By Jeff White, Induron Sales Manager

Don’t we all want to get the best value for anything we purchase? Whether it’s a big expense like a new vehicle, or something as small as a haircut to make us look our best (I unfortunately don’t have much use for that service), we all want to get value in everything we buy.

So what determines the “best value” for a coatings project? At Induron, our mission statement is “Reliable Protection Through Innovative Coatings.” We believe we are the best value provider for coatings in our markets.

Why?

I think it goes without saying – in our focus markets, we wouldn’t even be in the game if we didn’t provide the highest quality products at competitive prices.

So how do we differentiate ourselves? With the experience and knowledge of our people.

More than 70 percent of our sales force has invested in obtaining a NACE Coatings Inspector Certification. Add to that the fact that our sales team has an average of 20+ years in the coatings industry, and you realize that they are a great resource for engineers and owners trying to protect their assets from corrosion.     Continue reading What does “value” mean to you? →

Meet the Induron Family: Barry Peters

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Barry Peters, Induron Customer Service ManagerBarry Peters is both the face and voice of Induron to most of our valued customers. As the Customer Service Department Manager, Barry works with customers to ensure that orders are met correctly and in a timely fashion. He also answers a multitude of technical product and application questions. Additionally, he works with employees in Induron’s manufacturing department to streamline the flow of goods and facilitate shipping.

“We’re a small company, so service is really important,” he says. “We try to offer our customers the best service available, and develop relationships with them. We have to be personal, and understand their needs.

“We want to be considered a true partner to all our customers.”

Barry has been in the paint business for more than 20 years. He started with Induron (which was then called Indurall) in 1989 as a store manager, and then became an area manager in charge of half a dozen retail stores. During Induron’s transition from retail to strictly industrial, Barry became our company’s very first Customer Service Department Manager. After a stint with a friendly competitor from 2000 to 2010, Barry returned to Induron, and has played an integral part in the overall improvement of morale since.

Now that Induron has expanded internationally, Barry’s duties overseeing the shipping department have grown. “Shipping has become a big part of my job, since we’re sending products to Canada, Mexico and Central and South America,” he says. Continue reading Meet the Induron Family: Barry Peters →

Meet the Induron Family: Joe Jones

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Joe Jones, InduronJoe Jones is a soft-spoken guy who doesn’t say a lot, but what he lacks in words, he makes up for in wisdom and loyalty to Induron. The guys in the plant simply refer to him as “the gray fox” – not necessarily cunning, but smarter than the average bear.

Joe has been working at Induron since 1983. His father, Noel Jones, worked at Induron for 38 years, so he’s known the place his entire life. In fact, Noel is part of the old Indurall days’ lore because of a tumble he took into a batch of red-oxide primer. Although he turned out to be uninjured, when he came up out of that batch of dark red primer, everyone in the place thought otherwise!

Joe is behind just about every paint product that Induron sells. He’s worked in all parts of our facility, from filling to maintenance to actually making our paint products. These days, Joe makes several batches every day. Most of these batches are different sizes, all of them use different raw materials located all over our facility (no one knows exactly how Joe keeps up with their locations!) and Joe knows how to use every single different piece of paint making equipment in our plant, from the old Ball Mills to the modern dyno-mill. In a nutshell and in his own words, “Joe makes the paint.”

Joe drives 60 miles to and from work everyday. In his own humble way Joe said, “I guess I’ve been through about seven or eight cars in my time here.” But he doesn’t mind the drive. “I like the people I work with. We have fun and joke with each other while we get our jobs done.”

Davies Hood, Induron president, is the third Hood man Joe has seen running Induron. “The Hoods are good guys,” he said.

The feeling is mutual for Davies. “Joe has been an important part of our team for three decades,” he said. “He does good work and we’re proud to have him as part of the Induron family. Continue reading Meet the Induron Family: Joe Jones →

I’m NOT Lovin’ It

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By Jeff White, Induron Sales Manager

McDonalds GraffitiCan you believe that vandals would dare to deface a mural of Ronald McDonald, The Hamburglar and friends? Well in Huntingdon Beach, Calif., it happened. A graffiti “artist” (aka, vandal), who apparently doesn’t like Big Macs or Chicken McNuggets, decided to spray over the iconic Golden Arches Mural with the word “VEGAN.”

My thoughts? Even if you don’t like the burgers, you could still eat the fries and salads. Personally, I love a good Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

If only those folks in Huntingdon Beach had protected the mural with Induron’s Indurethane AG (that’s anti-graffiti), the cleanup would have been as easy as wiping the paint off with a wet cloth. Read more on this story at Durability + Design here.

If you have special icons in your community that you want to protect from vandals with a spray can, check out Indurethane AG or talk to an Induron sales rep today. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of elbow grease when it comes to removing spray paint!

Don’t Tread on Me

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By Linc York, Induron Sales Representative

Don't Tread on MeThe U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is proposing new LEED regulations for the paint and coatings industry, prompting some of us in the industry to ask, “Why?”

I’ve been in this industry for 40 years. When I started, there was no such thing as VOC restrictions, and there were no regulations on how much solvent you could have in a can of paint. In the 1970s, many paints were more than 50 percent solvent. Some even contained lead, chrome, asbestos and other heavy metals. However, since those times, the industry has adapted to current standards and those harmful additives are thankfully things of the past.

For the last 30 years, the paint and coatings industry has been going in two environmentally friendly directions at the same time. We have been developing zero-VOC coatings, as well as low-VOC-containing water-based technology in all our generic coatings lines. We have innovated many products that are commercially available and sold daily that are both HAPS (Hazardouse Air Pollutants) AND VOC-free. It doesn’t get any better than that. Additionally, new water-based technology is being developed all the time.

So, my point is this – in my opinion, the paint industry is way ahead of the curve.  We don’t need more regulations. We compete against ourselves, forcing new and innovative products that are always being developed. Couple R&D innovation with the architects and engineering communities who are on the cutting edge of compliance regulations, and that keeps all good paint and coatings manufacturers ahead of government over regulation. We don’t need more bureaucracy!

Founded in 1947, Induron manufactures high performance coatings that serve a range of industrial applications, including the wastewater, transmission and distribution and groundwater storage industries. Learn more about us at www.Induron.com.