New Teflon™ Product & Market Guide!

Need an ultimate guide to everything Teflon™? We know that choosing just the right coating for your products can sometimes be overwhelming and confusing. It is important to us to share input and educate our customers so they can use Teflon™ coatings to the best of their abilities.

This desire to always keep our coaters up-to-date with the latest information was the driving force for the creation of the Teflon™ Product & Market Guide. This guide is filled with valuable information about Teflon™ products, property data, and markets that the coatings may be used in. If you’re looking for answers and want to know what the most effective coating for your application is, we’ve got you covered. Additionally, this guide will help you to ensure that the coating you choose is within your shop’s capabilities. To download the Teflon™ Product & Market Guide for free now, visit this registration page!

Oil and Gas Industry Segment Interview: Chris Dohl

Q: What are the common problems within your industry? Chris: Corrosion is the most common issue in the Oil and Gas industry, particularly in subsea applications. Along with corrosion, lubricity for metal on metal surfaces also poses a problem. Many steel components are exposed to harsh environmental conditions that cause galling and overall component failures. Corroded threaded fasteners and other large componentry cause massive down time and costly maintenance. Q: How do Teflon™ coatings solve these problems? Chris: We have a series of coatings that prevent corrosion and provide enough slip to prevent galling that frequently occurs on threaded bolts, fasteners, and large oil and gas equipment. Q: What is one specific coating or coating system that has impressive resistance against corrosion for oil and gas industry applications? Chris: The 857G series has impressive corrosion resistance at very thin levels. Depending on your basecoat, achieving 3000 hours of salt spray is possible with the 857G at a thickness of only .8mils. This coating is also resistant to hydraulic fluids, aggressive rig wash products, has very good UV stability, and has a consistently lower coefficient of friction than uncoated threaded components and fasteners. Chemours developed a water based coating series specifically designed for Oil and Gas applications. These one coat systems can be coated as thin as .8mils but can be coated as thick as 4.5 mils to prevent corrosion in harsh environments like the Gulf Coast, Northern Africa, the North Sea, and other corrosive coast lines. Q: What new coating applications are on the horizon in the oil and gas industry? Chris: Currently the R&D team is working to develop a cermet primer and topcoat system that will enable fasteners and other componentry to withstand upwards of 10,000 salt spray hours. Enhancing the coating system’s corrosion protection while maintaining a very thin build up is a constant challenge for the R&D team. Q: Are there new technologies in development for this industry? Chris: Chemours is currently evaluating how traditional coatings in the Teflon™ product line can replace linings and other exotic metal and coating systems to prevent corrosion. Chemours recently developed a process to properly apply corrosion protection coatings inside of very narrow diameter tubes.  This process has the potential to save OEM’s significant money on existing applications. Q: What associations are you involved in within the industry? Chris: NACE, the National Association of Corrosion Engineering has been an excellent organization in understanding the latest industrial trends, test methodology, products, and applications that focus on corrosion protection. Regardless of the economy, rust never stops, and NACE allows the industries brightest engineers, chemists, and general technologist members to focus on preventing corrosion. If you may have any questions or inquiries for Chris about the oil and gas industry, email chris@intechservices.com or call (302)366-8530 x 103.

Best Pretreatment for Your Application

Most frequently, iron phosphate is used to pretreat powder coating, but other materials can be used as well. The reason that people choose to utilize iron phosphate is its usability with almost all substrates. Often, powder coatings will show improvements in performance over liquid paint when iron phosphate is used to pretreat.

A more costly process used for higher-end products is zinc phosphate. This process does have downfalls of using heavy metals, producing sludge, and needing added washer stages, yet sometimes is necessary if the desired performance is not accomplished with iron phosphate.

Teflon™ Pioneer Interview Series: Artie McElwee

We continue the pioneer series with a spotlight on a devoted Teflon™ coater with significant accomplishments in the industrial coatings field. All pioneers in the Teflon coatings industry are early adopters of the coatings and have helped to shape the way Teflon has grown and evolved as a reputable industrial fluoropolymer. With the vision and ingenuity of all pioneers, Teflon coatings continue to be regarded as the elite fluoropolymer of choice. This interview spotlights Artie McElwee of Toefco® Engineered Coating Systems, Inc. Through innovation and diversification, Toefco® strives every day to provide quality products and quality services with excellent delivery at a fair price. A family-owned and operated company for over 60 years, Toefco has been a frontrunner in coating application services. With the capacity to spray over 400 types of coatings and bake them in their 20+ ovens, Toefco has the capability to handle almost any coating project. Q:When was your company founded? Who founded it?A: The late Jim Jaden founded Toefco in 1955. For over 60 years, we have continued to stand behind our coating solutions and have engineered spray coating solutions for nearly any component you can think of. Q:What was the first significant piece of equipment you purchased?A: My family took over the company in 1994. The first significant pieces of equipment we purchased were new air compressors, air dryers, air and water separators, and filtration equipment. Q: How would you describe changes in the company from when it started to today? A: The list is long. The company is light-years ahead of where it first began, largely due to technological advances. Industrial equipment such as state of the art spray booths, robotics, and regenerative thermal oxidizers for the environment all play a part in the changing aspects of our business. These have all served as significant pieces of equipment and have been major investments towards the future of Toefco Engineered Coating Systems, Inc. Q: What would you consider significant milestones in your company? A: I consider the growth of Toefco, adding on to the facility and finding a great, great group of people to contribute to the company to be significant highlights within the last few years especially. We’re in the process of a big milestone right now. We’re just finishing a 20,000 square foot satellite facility only a mile away. This facility will accommodate our growth and expansion with our current customer base and support the new business that we’ve been awarded. In addition, we have built our state of the art equipment, which has the capability of coating and curing a 750 lb part, so that we can meet the needs of both new and existing customers. To see footage of our expansion, check out this video. Q: How has the coating industry itself changed over time? How have you seen it change over time? A: The coating industry is constantly evolving, particularly due to increasing environmental concerns. High-performance coating manufacturers have had to be progressive and get away from PFOAs and other constituents in these materials. These companies have strived to protect the environment and maintain earth-conscious practices, which has inspired a lot of change. Q: When did you get your LIA license? A: We got our LIA license well before I became a part of the Toefco team, and I’ve been here about 22 years. I believe we earned our LIA license in the early 1960s. Q: How has being an LIA affected your company? A: Being an LIA with Chemours has been very positive. Additionally, what Intech Services has done for our company has put us on the forefront as an LIA. Intech’s service and support as well as lead generation and opportunities we’ve been able to get have been significant. Their technical support and environmental help have really broadened our reach to customers. Q: What is your favorite Teflon™ coating? A: There are so many of them. The 851 Series and the 959G are great coatings. Tefzel is also a fabulous coating. As an applicator, we are committed to picking the best technology to solve the problem for the customer. Q: What excites you about the future of the coating industry? A: What excites me most are the opportunities that come with technological advancements as well as the progression towards more of a green thumb by lowering VOC content. Regulations are inevitable in our industry and causing it to progress and change. Several industries, such as car manufacturing, tractor manufacturing, and food processing are all increasingly regulated, giving us the opportunity to aid in their needed change. In the powder coating industry, we provide solutions such as fretting, galling, non-stick, corrosion resistance, and many more. What excites us at Toefco is being able to solve the problems that those within the industry did not have back in the day. Now that these industries are under regulation, Teflon produces new process solutions to create better results. For questions and inquiries for Toefco, please visit their contact us page, or contact Artie McElwee directly at Artie@toefco.com.