October 17, 2023 Advancing Manufacturing

Volume 26 | Issue 2

K&B Industries, a threading, manufacturing and engineering provider for energy, aerospace, and industrial customers, plans La. expansion.

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Louisiana-headquartered K&B Industries is a leading supplier of premium thread­ing, machining, manufacturing, assem­bly, engineering, inventory, and design services for energy, aero­space, and industrial customers.

As its 50th anniversary approaches, K&B Industries plans to expand its manufacturing division with the acquisition of a 118,000 square foot facility in Terrebonne Parish, La., near Houma. The $12 million investment is sched­uled to begin full operations late in 2023. The new facility houses surface enhancement equip­ment and an expanded clean room for assembly and testing, cleaning and anodizing of equip­ment used in semiconductor manufacturing. It also includes space for additional automated machine solutions to maximize production effi­ciencies and add capacity.

The expansion enables increased production to better serve the state’s growing aerospace and semiconductor manufacturing markets. According to a press release quoting K&B Industries President and founder Kenny Wood, Jr., “K&B Industries has always pursued the latest technologies regardless of the markets we serve, and our diversification into the aerospace and semiconductor markets has allowed us to build a skill set that did not exist in the area before. Our investment in our people has led us to establish a variety of training programs to help grow from within to meet the complex demands of manufacturing, quality, assembly, test and processing of rigorous aerospace and semiconductor industry standards.”

Terrebonne Economic Development Authority CEO Cohen Guidry notes that, “K&B Industries is one of the top-rated compa­nies to work for and an exceptional community partner in Terrebonne Parish. The company has been providing superior services to the energy industry for nearly 50 years and this lat­est expansion will allow them to offer services never before available in the state of Louisiana.”

The project is expected to create 70 new jobs, and is estimated to add another 78 indirect jobs, for a total of 148 new job opportunities in the Bayou Region.

This is just the latest in a series of continual expansions, driven in part to diversify beyond the oil and gas industries sector originally served when the company traded as K&B Works. The company’s precision manufacturing capabilities matched those of aerospace, which also lent itself to the semiconductor industry.

Founded in 1974, the K&B Industries currently maintains machining and manufacturing facili­ties in Houma and Schriever, La. and Houston, Texas. The Schriever location features new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and cor­porate offices encompass 205,000 square-feet of machining space, 25 acres of tubular storage space, and 20,000 sq. ft. of administrative and engineering space on a 71-acre campus that includes 140,000 square-feet of indoor space devoted to Customer Inventory Services. The OCTG Tubular Threading Services facility in Houma is an API and Premium threading facility, encompassing over 30,000 square feet of machining space, situated on a 13-acre site. K&B’s Houston facility provides a 150,000 square- feet threading area and 20 acres of paved concrete tubular storage, strategically located within the state’s energy corridor.

Services

The company’s energy services include pre­mium OCTG (Oil Company Tubular Goods) threading services unequalled in the industry, offering the largest comprehensive catalog of full line of premium threading licenses. Full length capabilities include API and premium threading, as well as saw cutting, swaging, man­dreling, and stress relieving on sizes ranging from 1-1/4’ to 20,” and end finishing of zinc and manganese phosphate coating, shot peen­ing, blasting, or copper plating.

With numerous API and ISO certifications, and more premium threading licenses than any other supplier, K&B Industries lays claim to being the go-to provider for OCTG Threading services. Its tubular services include a wide range of high-quality, in-demand products for drilling, production, and completion applica­tions. K&B’s experienced engineers are expert at custom designing products or even reverse-en­gineering them to exacting specifications.

Extensive tubular services include a wide range of high-quality, in-demand products for drill­ing, production, and completion applications. K&B’s experienced engineers are expert at custom designing products or even reverse-en­gineering them to exacting specifications. The company’s ISO 9001:2015 certification and API Q1 license combined with more than 1,000 inspection devices using controlled calibration guarantee quality workmanship. In addition, K&B Industries offers 3D Printed ID and OD Drifts. First of its kind, its ID Drift is 85%lighter than a steel drift of equal size and volume. K&B Industries manufacturing and machin­ing services are ISO 9001:2015 certified and API Q1 licensed, with more than a thousand inspection devices with controlled calibration.

Aerospace and semiconductor advanced man­ufacturing employs a full line of cutting-edge software and tooling, as well as over 75 CNC-controlled mills, lathes, drill presses, and vertical mills. This unique blend of specialized machin­ery can turnkey parts that require several passes for completion, in sizes as small as ½” to as large as 64” in diameter. From carbon steel to the most exotic alloys, K&B Industries is a prov­en supplier of close-tolerance machining.

Four K&B locations also provide oil and gas customer with inventory services to reduce costs, improve logistics and supply chain efficiencies. In addition, it offers customers OCTG storage and other material handling solutions. K&B specializes in the storage of CRA Tubular prod­ucts by meeting and exceeding API 5CRA/ ISO 13680, and API 5C1 standards for han­dling, processing, packaging of CRA products. It also provides trucking services and a live inventory management system.

A K&B Industries joint venture with Corrosion Resistant Alloys (CRA) provides full-service manufacturing and machining of turnkey prod­ucts with an emphasis on nickel-based alloys. The joint venture primarily serves the energy sector in Guyana.

Helping Customers Be Successful

According to Wood, “K&B Industries was founded with a clear formula for success: help customers be successful, and you’ll be success­ful, too. Today, four decades of intense custom­er focus has resulted in K&B Industries being recognized as a leading supplier of premium threading, machining, manufacturing, engi­neering and design services. We are committed to meeting the unique needs and expectations of each customer, delivering the products and services they need to stay productive, efficient, and competitive.

He adds that, “It’s The Plus Factor™ — the additional steps our dedicated employees take every day to make sure customers are satisfied —that makes the difference. K&B Industries continues to invest in state-of-the-art facili­ties, equipment and technologies, which better enables us to meet the increasingly challenging and diverse needs of a dynamic marketplace.

“No matter how demanding or complicat­ed the challenge, we know that the success of K&B Industries depends on the success of our customers.”

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