Function vs. Features

“I bought one of your competitors’ coating machines after looking at both units. Your competitors machine was $50,000 more money than yours and they told me I needed all of the bells and whistles they featured such as automatic retrieval of the spray head, a computer to tell me how many grams per cm of resin I was applying in real-time, heated hoses and heated canisters as well as an automated recirculation system to stir their resin. The unit doesn’t work as advertised and they’ve departed the industry. Will your materials work in their machine and can you modify it to function like yours? I honestly purchased theirs because it looked so much better as I thought your unit was assembled with parts from Home Depot, but I’ve since heard from other contractors that yours works while mine doesn’t. Can you help?”

When we developed the Quik-Coating process we were in the contractor mode of trying to produce the best system we could for the lowest possible price. We may have spent too much time on function and not enough on features to attract your interest. I think the point we agree on is the equipment and resin must work. Without that it doesn’t matter how much lipstick we put on it, it’s still a boat anchor if it doesn’t work. With that said, we may be able to help if your supplier changed the materials to a similar resin that we use.

We use a modified polyurea designed for sewer applications. The formulation has an additive that allows the ”shore hardness” or durometer to have the same hardness as a PVC equivalent. We’ve also adjusted formulation to hold up to the chemistry found in sewers. Our resin uses a 1:1 mix of A & B components at a very slow flow rate due to the cps thickness of the material. If you’ve switched the pumps to low-velocity pumps that deliver resin at 1:1 with a 1500 cps material, we can supply you our specially designed pumps that would possibly be a better fit and will produce a 1:1 mix with your drive motor.

You can continue to use your canisters, however, we suggest you fill with nitrogen in the canisters to stabilize the resin when in storage or switch out the plumbing to our cubetainers that collapse as the resin is dispensed preventing air from entering the containers. I would also suggest not using the spray for any lines that have a turn or offset. Spray sounds good in theory but coats too lightly around any turns or the negative side of an offset and causes resin build up on the inside of the turn.

In order to save cost but deliver function, we may not look as pretty as a unit with a lot of bells and whistles. We heard your comment and are adding “lipstick” as well as a few functional features that can help you. First of all, we are not adding weight to the units. Competitive equipment with all the bells and whistles weigh in at over 250#’s or 113 kg. We want to continue to hold the weight to 75#’s (34kg) or less to keep it portable and a one-person operable piece of equipment.

Here’s what the 2020 models are offering.

  • We’ve protected the electronic controls placing them behind plating.
  • We are changing the paint scheme to a powder-coated 2 wheel cart that is refigured to fit into a standard cargo van in the upright position without having to lay it down.
  • We’re offering an option tablet that holds software for the step by step guides for installing both liner and/or coating, the 2 calculators for lining & coating jobs calculating the amounts of resin needed for each.
  • The software also holds the operator’s guides for the equipment, and the standards and approvals needed to perform both lining and coating.
  • We’re adding a platform for weighing the resin cubes and to hold the optional scale.
  • We are also adding a power strip to allow you to plug in your coating driver, scale and to recharge your computer.
  • All options along with the cart configuration give a neutral weight change to the unit.
  • Additionally, we’ve enhanced the goggles for viewing the work in real-time.

For more information, contact us at +1-888-354-6464 or email info@pipeliningsupply.com

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Top