High-tech thermal coating

Since the 1980s, the Griekspoor company has been engaged in flame spraying, or thermal spraying, where a coating is applied that prevents the part from rusting and/or wearing out. Over the years, the family business has continued to specialize and even developed its own grinding method. Partly as a result, Griekspoor Thermal Coatings has become the world market leader in flame spraying.

Griekspoor Thermal Coatings is part of Gebr. Griekspoor, active in the infrastructure sector for more than 50 years. "The focus on surface treatment comes from bridge maintenance," begins Mario van Helmond of Griekspoor Thermal Coatings. "Originally, Gebr. Griekspoor has been involved in maintaining, repairing and restoring bridges. In the early years, worn bridge railings were taken to a thermal galvanizing plant for the application of a new protective coating. However, that generally took far too long. Reason for Griekspoor Sr. to go out on the farm and invest in a shoveling machine himself to avoid hot-dip galvanizing. He bought not just one machine, but also invested (heavily) in a plasma installation. Shortly thereafter, an HVOF installation was also purchased, all so that he could also revitalize the cylinder rods of movable bridges."

HVOF and Plasma installation

"Scooping is already a form of flame spraying, where a zinc-aluminum layer is applied as a preservation, the plasma and HVOF installations, on the other hand, are much more high-tech," Van Helmond continued. "In doing so, we also have our own  grinding bench and grinding method developed. It is precisely this combination that makes us unique in Europe. This is because on our plasma installation we can grind cylinder rods up to 23 meters long along their entire length to the hundredth of a millimeter and give them a surface treatment. The maximum weight the installation can handle is 20 tons and the maximum diameter is 1 meter. In the process, we guarantee extremely high quality. No product has ever been returned because of its quality. This is partly due to the high-tech technology and proprietary methodology, but also because of the people behind the machine. We are blessed with motivated subject matter experts, whom we train in-house and teach the art of flame spraying."

Griekspoor Thermal Coatings guarantees extremely high quality.

TOPCOAT^®

The surface treatment that Griekspoor Thermal Coatings applies to its products is unified under the trade name TOPCOAT^®. Van Helmond: "It is again an in-house development and for many years the only coating suitable for treating hydraulic installations. Still our coating is unmatched and resistant to the most aggressive environments. For industry, we have TOPCOAT^®standardized into five categories, but in fact the possibilities are endless. Depending on the situation, we consider which type of coating best suits the objectives. A harbor crane on the coast of Norway with little air pollution can get by with a different coating than a crane on a ship, which also has to work underwater in the Gulf of Mexico."

Consequently, Griekspoor Thermal Coatings works for a wide variety of customers. "For example, we are currently renewing the coating of six cylinder rods of the Bathse Spuisluis lock complex in stages. Another great reference is the coating on the hydraulic cylinder rod of a large Liebherr crane stationed in Pakistan. The original coating on the cylinder rod lasted less than six weeks, our coating still shows no trace of corrosion or wear after a year."