MesoCoat Hits Milestone - Cladding Inside Diameter of Pipe
March 15 2012 - 9:59AM
Business Wire
Abakan Inc. (OTCQB: ABKI) ("Abakan") is pleased to announce that
its subsidiary MesoCoat Inc., has successfully completed a major
milestone by cladding the inside diameter of steel pipe with
corrosion and wear resistant alloys and expects to complete
qualification with several oil majors within the next 6 months.
Metal cladding for wear and corrosion protection is a $3.8
billion global market of which approximately 50% is for coating
steel pipes which are used in the oil and gas, oil sands, mining
and processing industries. The cladding of steel pipe is expected
to double over the next four years because almost all of the new
oil and gas fields being developed today are highly corrosive.
Metallurgical cladding is considered to be the finest form of
cladding but currently it is a slow process with long lead times
and high cost, which have held back wider adoption. MesoCoat’s
focus has always been to search for critical material science and
surface engineering problems, then provide disruptive solutions
that are game-changing and have the potential to redefine industry
standards. CermaCladTM does exactly that. MesoCoat’s ‘CermaCladTM
high speed, large area metallurgical cladding technology has
routinely been defined by their partners and potential customers as
an ‘Impact Technology’ – you see it work and you instantaneously
realize its potential. Andrew Sherman, MesoCoat’s CEO, stated: “We
think CermaCladTM will replace weld overlay and laser cladding as
the number one choice for metallurgical cladding and it will
provide an alternative to mechanically clad lined pipe, which is
widely used in the industry, by providing a faster, better and
cheaper metallurgical cladding solution.”
CermaCladTM is 20-80X faster, provides a magnitude improvement
in surface properties and is cheaper than competing weld overlay
and laser cladding technologies. CermaCladTM technology has been
developed and matured for over a decade at one of the finest global
R&D institutions, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and for
the past 3 years, MesoCoat has built its expertise in process
control, metallurgy, material science, scalability and dramatically
reducing the size of the cladding system; today, the lamp head can
go inside pipes with a 7.5 inch internal diameter. Recently
completed Det Norske Veritas (DNV) tests on CermaCladTM CRA
products have confirmed 6X better corrosion protection, strong
metallurgical bond, outstanding microstructure, and minimal
dilution or stirring of the substrate.
Within six months MesoCoat expects to exceed the American
Petroleum Institute (API) and DNV acceptance criteria for clad
pipes allowing us to become a qualified vendor for some of the
largest oil and gas, oil sands, mining, heavy equipment and
engineering management companies across the globe. MesoCoat also
expects to finish construction of their new manufacturing facility
in Euclid, Ohio during the second quarter of this year, and once
operational, it will be one of the top five metallurgical clad pipe
manufacturing facilities across the globe with approximate annual
production capacity of 30 km’s of clad pipe. One MesoCoat clad pipe
manufacturing facility with four lines is projected to produce over
120 kms of 8 inch clad pipe, which will cost significantly less
than 10-15 full-scale weld overlay or laser cladding facilities
that it would take to achieve similar production capacity.
About Abakan Inc.:
Abakan is a Miami-based, publicly traded company that invests in
companies that have developed transformational technologies on the
cusp of commercial acceptance. In addition to supporting MesoCoat’s
development, Abakan is involved in Powdermet’s commercialization of
its metal formulations and advanced energy management solutions.
Both MesoCoat and Powdermet have received numerous industry awards
(including R&D 100 awards and National Institute of Standards
and Technology, Technology Innovation Program awards) and numerous
government grants.
Forward-Looking Statements:
A number of statements contained in this press release are
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements
involve a number of risks and uncertainties including technological
obsolescence, market acceptance of future products, competitive
market conditions, and the sufficiency of capital resources. The
actual results Abakan may achieve could differ materially from any
forward-looking statements due to such risks and uncertainties.
Abakan encourages the public to read the information provided here
in conjunction with its most recent filings on Form 8-K, Form 10-K
and Form 10-Q. Abakan’s public filings may be viewed at
www.sec.gov.