When hiring a pipeline painter, technology must be a consideration

At Thomas Industrial Coatings, we’ve always made it a point to invest in the best technology for our projects, as we believe our customers deserve nothing short of the best. Whether you hire us, or another industrial painting company for your pipeline and penstock coating work, make sure you investigate your painter’s focus on modern industrial painting technology. Following are a few areas of focus.

Do they buy what they need?

Carpenters don’t rent their hammers so we don’t think it’s smart for an industrial painter to rent their coating and blasting equipment. At Thomas, we buy the tools we need for a given job. This keeps project downtime to a minimum and helps keep a projected delivery time from ever being compromised.

From mainstream tools to those a little less common, we’ve made it a point to be equipped with cutting-edge technology. Make sure your industrial pipeline painter is as well.

The job-site is a sacred place – keep it that way

Whether you’re tapping a painter for coating, blasting or lead abatement, make sure they tailor the equipment they take to a pipe or penstock job-site to the needs and specifications of that actual job-site. We certainly do and we go to great strides to protect it once it’s there.

For instance, we’ve had thieves go after our equipment on a given job-site, but, to their misfortune, we have tools in place to catch them. At Thomas, the job-site is a sacred place. If there’s technology that keeps us working safely and efficiently chances are, we’ve got it and fully subscribe to its worth. We believe it to be crucial that you make sure your industrial painter follows suit.

Is your pipeline painter digitally savvy?

As we’re all probably aware, there’s not much bigger in technology right now than the iPad. At Thomas Industrial Coatings, we use TruQC, a job-site documentation app for the iPad, to streamline the stacks of paperwork associated with a given job-site. You can read a case study about it here, but in short, this iPad app helps make a project more efficient and successful for us, and more importantly, it make a project better for our clients.

When hiring an industrial painter, inquire about the role that digital tools play in their toolbox and ask how you can monitor a project as it progresses. It’s “your” money being spent – you deserve to be constantly aware of what’s going on.

Technology is just one piece of the pipeline and penstock puzzle

While we’ve invested in technology since day one, it alone isn’t enough. The latest and greatest innovation is useless unless used properly and by highly skilled craftsmen.

We employ top-notch technology for our teams of pipe coating experts so they can do their jobs at the highest level possible. That’s the biggest key to our success. When hiring a team, ask to meet the people who will be working on your job. You deserve to know who will be responsible for your project’s success.

 

 

Meet pipeline and penstock coatings specialist, Eric Nenninger

With more and more industrial coating work being generated in the pipeline and penstock markets, this month, we wanted to feature one of our pipeline coatings specialists. Eric Nenninger has been with Thomas Industrial Coatings since 2005. He carries a broad list of certifications, serving as a NACE Level 3 Coating Inspector, an SSPC PCI Level 3 Certified Inspector and SSPC QP: Quality Control Supervisor.

How long have you been at Thomas Industrial Coatings?
I’ve been at Thomas for 7 years now.

What’s your role as a pipeline coatings guy?
I’m Thomas Industrial Coatings Regional Manager for the northern region of the Midwest.

Where’s your stomping ground?
I’m from the St. Louis area, but for the last several years, I’ve been bouncing around northern Illinois, including Chicago where I’m based. Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas – all part of my territory.

Your day-to-day at Thomas Industrial Coatings…
I oversee industrial painting projects for pipelines and penstocks from start to finish. I visit sites, perform visual inspections and keep everything running nice and smooth.

What makes Thomas Industrial Coatings different?
Thomas is unique because we’re a top five industrial painter in the United States but still have managed to retain that family-run atmosphere. Everyone enjoys working with each other and cares enough to make sure that we all live up to our standards of quality. This isn’t by accident though. This is by careful design. It’s a work environment we all care about greatly, so we hard hard to maintain it.

Tell us about your current pipeline coating project
Pipeline coatings and penstock painting is definitely a large part of what I do. I’m actually working on a penstock coatings project with Minnesota Power and Light right now. It’s a great project and is one I’m really enjoying.

How about when you’re not working?
It’s getting a little cold now but I enjoy training for triathlons.

If you could have dinner with three people, who would they be?
My wife, George Washington and Joe Montana.

4 considerations for safer pipeline and penstock coatings projects

Working on penstock and pipeline coatings projects comes with a unique set of safety hurdles that we have to consider. While we may not be 100 feet in the air, safety concerns run the gamut for coating pipelines.

Here are four key considerations that we as industrial painters should always work to keep top-of-mind when approaching a pipeline coating job.

1. Moving vehicles

First of all, it’s easy to forget that pipelines also often need to be coated on the inside. One of the largest concerns for internal pipeline coating is potentially being struck by a vehicle in a large pipe setting. Getting blindsided is hazardous at street level, not even considering the added complications of being on the inside of a pipeline.

2. Falling debris

Another common risk that is amplified for pipeline coatings is falling debris. All of our job-sites require hard hats, and pipeline job-sites are certainly no exception. The cylindrical nature of pipes and penstocks means that debris can come from any angle. And debris coming from any angle means a much increased risk of danger.

3. Safe evacuation routes

When it comes to pipelines already in use, stopping the flow of whatever the pipe is used for is a significant concern. Plugging the flow within a pipeline means that there is an immense pressure continuing to build. Not only must we be cognisant of this, we also must make sure that there are safe evacuation routes for all in the tunnel.

4. Fresh air

Just as there must be secondary entries and exits for the safety of everyone inside the pipeline, alternate air sources are a nonnegotiable. Fresh air is always a concern when painting, even in our homes. Magnify that with the closed in surroundings of a pipe, and a very dangerous situation is at hand. Sourcing clean air for pipeline coatings is a top priority.

Safer for everyone

Industrial pipeline coatings certainly isn’t the easiest job on the planet. But by us keeping our team safe while they do a quality job, pipelines become safer for everyone. At Thomas Industrial Coatings, we work hard to keep our team as safe as they can be. We hope you, fellow industrial painters, will work to do the same.

 

Industrial painter named Five Star Workplace by St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Thomas Industrial Coatings is excited to announce that we were just named a Five Star Workplace by St. Louis Small Business Monthly. The feature article in the November 2012 issue of the publication highlighted our company’s belief in hiring great people and putting them in a position to succeed, our approach to safety and training, and the immense opportunity that Thomas Industrial Coatings employees are encountered with daily. Of course, congrats to the entire team!

Thomas Industrial Coatings among the nation’s top industrial painting contractors

St. Louis-based Thomas Industrial Coatings was recently named to the Top 600 Specialty Contractors list by Engineering News-Record (ENR). This annual report showcases the premier contractors, by industry, in the United States.

The painting company gained three positions on the “Top 20 Firms In Painting” listing, moving from number seven to number four, and they also surged on the list of “Top 600 Specialty Contractors”, moving up 92 spots from 373 to 281. Much of the recent work for Thomas Industrial Coatings has been in the transportation, water supply, sewer and waste, and industrial and petroleum industries.

“We were excited with our results last year,” said Don Thomas, founder and President of Thomas Industrial Coatings. “This year is even better. It’s great to grow and build upon our success thus far. I’m proud of the work we’ve done and we’ll continue to make our customers happy.”

Engineering News-Record is an industry publication owned by McGraw-Hill. It serves as an outlet for expert analysis, information and opinion for the construction industry on an international scale. ENR provides annual rankings and assessments for America’s largest contractors.

Industrial painter continues to drive safety

We recently took another step towards improving the safety of everyone here at Thomas Industrial Coatings. On Tuesday, October 9, 16 of our employees engaged in the first round of Defensive Driving training courses. The Safety Council of Greater St. Louis conducted the National Safety Council Defensive Driver training course which helps make everyone on the road safer.

“We have a commitment to safety for all of our employees when they’re on the job-site,” said Don Thomas, founder and president of Thomas Industrial Coatings. “It’s also important that our guys are safe when they’re headed to and from those job-sites. Moving our equipment and workers between projects around the country involves a lot of driving. We do things safely, driving is definitely no exception.”

The four-hour classes are designed to help improve awareness and safe driving habits through defensive driving training. By November 4, all of our supervisors will have completed the defensive driving course. These defensive driving courses are part of our continual efforts to be as safe as we can possibly be. 

The first round of participants included Don Thomas, John Bohmer, Ross Boyd, Todd Cook, Andrew Everding, Les Gibson, Andy Hamersen, Steve Kuehler, John Lohkamp, Richard Runyon, Ryan Selsor, Josh Teddleton, Brandon Thomas, Claudia Thomas, Rich Todd and Tony Wheelock. The rest of our supervisors at Thomas Industrial Coatings will soon be following suit.

Employee Profiles New
X