Tnemec Company, Inc. was founded in 1921 and is a leading manufacturer of high-performance architectural and industrial coatings. The Kansas City, Missouri-based company offers innovative coating formulations that protect a wide range of substrates and enhance aesthetics. From water tanks and treatment plants, to manufacturing plants, industrial facilities and specialty architectural buildings, Tnemec coatings can be found protecting virtually all types of structures and buildings.

“Tnemec Company offers a wide-range of coatings that provide corrosion protection to steel, non-ferrous, and concrete substrates,” said Mark Thomas, vice president – marketing, Tnemec Company, Inc.  “These include zinc-rich and mio/zinc urethane primers, chemical resistant epoxies and water-based products.”

A particularly unique product offered by Tnemec Company is a water-based epoxy coating with corrosion-inhibitive properties that provides equivalent corrosion protection as solvent-based epoxy coatings.
The applications for Tnemec’s products vary and include protection from exterior weathering, chemical exposures and corrosive vapors.
According to Thomas, the primary concern when choosing corrosion protecting products is the environmental conditions which the substrate and coating will be subjected to and thus the performance level required of the coating and coating system. 

“A full understanding of the environmental conditions is needed in order to provide a sound coating recommendation,” said Thomas.  “Often this includes identifying any factors that could increase the severity of the environment such as a coastal exposure in additional to exterior weathering, or high temperatures in addition to chemical immersion.”

Tnemec Company’s product development efforts have been, and remain, focused on performance.  “By utilizing new technology the company has been able to formulate lower VOC products while maintaining ease of application and high performance standards,” said Thomas. “The high-performance coatings industry is an extremely dynamic one and requires constant forward progress in terms of innovative product development and technical customer service.  New technology is continually introduced to the coatings industry that provides better performance while lowering VOCs and limiting environmental impact.  Tnemec Company intends to remain at the forefront of this new technology while assisting its customers with sound advice and support.”

Tnemec Company’s 2013 Tank of the Year

With a vivid, intricate wrap-around motif and tagline that reads, “Creativity Redefined,” this elevated water tank from Mt. Vernon, Illinois was named Tnemec’s 2013 Tank of the Year. This water tank’s new look is part of a rebranding effort for the City of Mt. Vernon. “In 2012, the City hired an outside company to help develop a new logo,” said Bonnie Jerdon, director of the Mt. Vernon Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We wanted to create some continuity and increase our amount of visitors.”

The shinning exterior and interior coatings systems were manufactured by Tnemec Company, Inc. All exposed steel is coated with Tnemec’s flagship water tank topcoat, HydroFlon – an industry standard for superior protection against UV degradation and other harmful effects caused by atmospheric exposure.

The plated steel was fabricated by CB&I and coated in-shop with a moisture-cured, zinc-rich aromatic urethane primer, Series 91-H2O Hydro-Zinc, on both the interior and exterior. The steel was delivered to the jobsite already primed. The interior steel was then painted with two coats of Series N140 Pota-Pox Plus, a potable water coating certified in accordance with ANSI/NSF Std. 61.

The exterior steel received an intermediate coat of Series 73 Endura-Shield before the finish coat was applied. The finish coat, Series V700 Low VOC HydroFlon, was specified in the color “Tank White.” This version of HydroFlon meets area air regulations and provides extremely long-term maintenance cycles with excellent color and gloss retention.

The tank’s top-to-bottom mural of spiraling, bubble-like shapes was coated using HydroFlon, too. “They submitted several colors and we provided them with options in every shade,” said Mike Cerruti, local coating consultant with Coating Solutions, LLC in Eureka, Missouri. “They ended up using two gallons of seven different colors for the logo and design.”

The logo itself was painted by Missouri-based contractor, Trikote LLC.  “To create the design and leave sharper lines, the painter cut patterns out of house wrap material,” explained Cerutti. “Once the stencils were cut out, they applied the many colors of HydroFlon using brush and rollers.”