|
Nondestructive
testing company emphasizes only quality in checking parts for defects
By
Catherine S. Dailey
Haltom City
– Ernie Vandergriff found his niche in a room filled with the remains of a
failed business.
In 1992, the government had shut down one of the few
wide-range nondestructive testing facilities in the South – Ultrasonic
Research of Dallas. Nondestructive testing uses various technologies
to test the strength of crucial metal parts, without bending or breaking
samples, as was the previous practice. The procedure has many uses,
from total inspections of new vehicles or space stations to inspections of
the Statue of Liberty.
Vandergriff, who had learned of the technology in 1980
during a stint in the Air Force, was buying and reselling the equipment of
failed companies when he came upon Ultrasonic.
He knew the company had not gone out of business for lack
of work, but for regulatory action.
“When Ultrasonic went out of business, you saw all
these NDT jobs just leaving the area,” he says. “Everyone was
looking at each other wondering, ‘Who’s going to open a lab?’”
By 1994, he had gathered enough capital and bought about
$5 million worth of Ultrasonic’s equipment. To store it, he
purchased a facility at
4209 Murray Ave.
in
Haltom City
. The 15,000-square-foot lot, which cost him $112,000, included 6,000
square feet under roof.
“It was stacked up, just shoved in corners,”
Vandergriff says of the equipment.
In July 1997, he decided to put |
|
Fort
Worth Star-Telegram
Ernie
Vandergriff, owner of Vandergriff Technologies in Haltom City,
stands inside an ultrasound system used to retrieve data from large
aircraft parts to show possible stress fractures or fatigue. |
|
the
idle equipment to use and launched Vandergriff Technologies.
For added room, he purchased the next-door facility
at
4205 Murray Ave.
in January, a 20,000-square-foot space, for $120,000.
More
important, Vandergriff lined up such customers as Northrop Grumman,
Bell Helicopter Textron, Aero Structures, W. Pat Crow, Boeing, Cessna-Ultrasonics
and McDonnell Douglas.
And
business has grown steadily.
In his first month, Vandergriff says, he had
monthly revenues of $10,000 to $12,000, an amount that grew to $35,000
to $40,000 in most recent months.
But quality and reputation are more important to
the company than cash, says Russell Hall, one of Vandergriff’s
inspectors.
“There are companies that have been shut down
because they didn’t care,” Hall says.
Vandergriff’s daughter, Venicia, gave up plans to
be a math teacher to become quality manager. She produces all of
its manuals and procedures and enforces their implementation. |
“She’s the boss,” Vandergriff says. “We went through
many managers, but she was the one doing all the work.”
Vandergriff’s overhead includes $1,500 monthly
mortgage payments on both buildings, and the wages he pays his six
employees. The employees, which include four inspectors and
helpers, earn between $7 and $18 an hour.
Vandergriff has also added a new position,
marketing manager, to stir up new business.
Vandergriff Technologies uses all five major
nondestructive testing methods: ultrasound, magnetic particle, dye
penetrant, eddy current and radiography, or X-ray.
Vandergriff says his satisfaction comes in
discovering flawed parts that could destroy equipment or cost lives if
undetected.
“We find defects and parts that absolutely cannot
go out in the field,” he says.
Paul McIntire, manager of publications for the
American Society for NonDestructive Testing in
Columbus
,
Ohio
, says few labs can offer the same variety of services as Vandergriff. |
|
“That is a real wide
range of testing capability for one company,” says McIntire, whose
organization has 400 corporate and 10,000 individual members.
“An organization that can do that wide range of work is rare.”
Vandergriff’s staff takes pride in a 45-foot gantry
system that helps support its large defense projects. The gantry
can test two 8-foot Boeing 747 “dance floors,” or tail section
flaps, at once.
“If we have a large overhead of parts, we have
another 35-foot gantry ready to set up,” Vandergriff says.
His lab also tests oil-drill spring filters for
Halliburton using eddy current, a method involving a probe that scans a
part for defects with an electromagnetic field.
For W. Pat Crow, Vandergriff uses contact ultrasound
and emersion testing to look for defects in metal forgings, bar stock,
nuclear valves and aircraft parts.
“They’re a good house, real professional,” W.
Pat Crow supervisor Robert Vasquez says.
When Six Flags Over Texas in
Arlington
is closed for the months of its off-season, park workers disassemble
parts of 80 percent to 90 percent of its rides and send them to
Vandergriff’s for dry powder magnetic particle and ultrasound
inspection. Vandergriff Technologies does not test the water rides
at the park, such as the one that capsized last month, killing one
rider.
Vandergriff was thrilled when several companies –
including Six Flags, Halliburton and Trinity Forge – recently signed
one-year exclusive contracts with his company.
“I’ve never heard of that being done before,”
Vandergriff says. “That was quite an honor for us.”
Photo by Olaf
Growald
May 3, 1999
|