Thorpe Specialty Services Corp.
Thorpe Specialty Services Corp. is a leading supplier of plant maintenance and engineering services, with select manufacturing capabilities, for industrial plants. One site that can attest to Thorpeâs multiservice abilities to engineer, manufacture and provide key specialty field services to optimize operating equipment performance while minimizing a facilityâs downtime is Eastman Chemical Co.âs Longview petrochemical plant, the second-largest complex of its kind in Texas.
âWe have a very long service on-site leader with Thorpe, and we benefit from his knowledge base and wealth of experience. He has the ability to look at a variety of different types of problems and then help us with both engineered and practical, field-type solutions,â said Carroll Greenwaldt, director of utilities, cogeneration and environmental services for Eastman Chemicalâs Longview operations.
Greenwaldt can testify firsthand Thorpe has been instrumental to the plantâs success over the past 20 years. âIâve had the opportunity to cross paths with Thorpe in a number of regards, whether thatâs refractory linings, robotic demolition, fiberglass-reinforced plastic and dual-laminate equipment and products, thermoplastics, rubber linings or corrosion-resistant coatings,â he explained. âEastman learned of Thorpeâs corrosion expertise in 2015 and utilized their corrosion solutions and services on our very critical clarifiers and wastewater treatment facility. With their technical solutions and field expertise, we think weâre going to get significant life extension on those clarifiers that otherwise wouldâve required replacements of the entire clarifier walls and vessel.
âWe had not seen that kind of coating expertise before, and because we were so pleased with that, Thorpe received one of Eastmanâs very few supplier innovation awards. In addition, Thorpe has received several supplier excellence awards. Only the top 2-3 percent of our suppliers are eligible for those kinds of awards.â
Thorpe also has an excellent safety record, performing work at Eastman for over 18 years without an OSHA recordable.
Greenwaldt added Thorpeâs outstanding record of innovative maintenance services helps the Longview site minimize downtime across all its operations. âOur cracking plants and other facilities are often not down for years in between maintenance intervals, so Thorpeâs ability to bridge to a major shutdown really helps us a lot,â he expressed. âWeâre a large facility with a number of different operations, so itâs really imperative that we look carefully at equipment conditions, determine the additional life thatâs available, look at life cycles and use the time thatâs available to us during turnarounds judiciously, but not extend outages or turnarounds. Thorpe is a key player in that regard.â
For more information, visit www.ThorpePME.com, call (713) 644-1247 or email General@ThorpePME.com.
