Company Announcement - Thermal spray coating specialists, Thermaspray and Surcotec, have extended their coating and engineering capabilities in the South African market with the signing of a joint venture agreement in April 2015. Thermaspray Managing Director, Dr. Jan Lourens, who has been appointed to the same designation at Surcotec, says the joint venture which gives Thermaspray 50% shareholding in Surcotec, is a perfect fit for the two companies. “They share a number of important synergies; both companies are well-established, management and personnel have extensive experience in local and international markets and Surcotec’s management philosophy is well aligned to that of Thermaspray. In addition, compliance to ISO 9001 quality management systems and respective Eskom level 1 and 2 certification illustrate Thermaspray and Surcotec’s shared commitment to quality.”
Thermaspray, established in 1998 and headquartered in Johannesburg, leads the South African thermal spraying industry in a fully comprehensive product and service solutions offering to OEM customers and end-users throughout South Africa.
The company’s full range of world-class wear- and corrosion-resistant thermal spray coatings, plasma coatings and Plasma Transferred Arc (PTA) cladding is complemented by a host of specialised allied services such as coating finishing technologies including machining, grinding, diamond grinding, probe track burnishing, electrical run-out measurements/reporting, linishing and super finishing. Thermaspray’s in-house, European-approved metallurgical laboratory is the only dedicated facility of its kind in Africa’s thermal spray industry.
Metal coatings and mechanical component reburbisher, Surcotec is fully BEE compliant and has been operating under the present management for the past 15 years. “This gives us the necessary experience and expertise to offer surface coating technology solutions as well as precision engineering, rotating equipment repair and in-situ machining,” comments Surcotec Operations and Sales Manager, Ian Walsh. “We will soon be complementing our process capabilities which include Combustion powder spray, H.V.O.F. spray, Thermal Arc spray, P.T.A and automated bore welding with the introduction of Plasma Spray,” he adds.
Surcotec will benefit from Thermaspray’s well-established systems and procedures as well as important production equipment including grinding machines and a 6-axis robot controlled plasma spray system which will be sent to Surcotec. As the longest established thermal spray coating company in the Western Cape, Surcotec in turn offers Thermaspray access to wider territories. “Up to now, Thermaspray’s presence in the Western and Eastern Cape has been fairly limited,” notes Dr. Lourens. “With Surcotec’s established infrastructure in the Western Cape, we now expect to see good market growth in these regions.”
Dr. Lourens and Walsh are confident that the establishment of this joint venture will add value through the delivery of an unequalled, world-class range of coating and engineering service solutions that will extend equipment life cycles and maximise uptime for customers throughout South Africa. “Together we bring a number of value adds to the table to the ultimate advantage of our customers.”