Vendome Copper & Brass Works is a 4 generation family owned business that has come to Tuscola to weld on pressure vessels and piping for many years and the majority of the work that our plant has used them for is copper welding. So when the decision was made to repair T 01213 which is a copper lined vessel, the vendor of choice was Vendome. One of the current owners, Rob Sherman, has been here and repaired our copper equipment in the past and has the knowledge to get us the right people to meet our needs. The crew that we have had for this turnaround is: Mike Rankin, Rob Ross, Andy Wibbels, Tim Stuck, and Jason Garr.
They have had to repair every copper lined can on the tower and the top dome. Between the 5 of them they have 70 years of experience in welding copper and could come up with the right fix for each need that has arose. They had to remove a lot of silver solder and copper weld all the seams, repaired all of the nozzles and also replaced any pieces of the liners that were not repairable. By the time they got finished they used 50 pounds of copper rod to make the repairs.
We here at LyondellBasell acknowledge their major contribution to this turnaround and they did it with no accidents and excellent workmanship. We appreciate these contractors that can meet the specialty needs we have here at Tuscola.