We offer our customers “one source for asset protection solutions”®
and are a leading global provider of technology-enabled asset protection solutions
used to evaluate the structural integrity and reliability of critical energy,
industrial and public infrastructure. We combine industry-leading products and
technologies, expertise in mechanical integrity (MI), Non-Destructive Testing
(NDT), Destructive Testing (DT) and predictive maintenance (PdM) services, process
and fixed asset engineering and consulting services, proprietary data analysis
and our world class enterprise inspection database management and analysis software,
PCMS, to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of customized solutions, ranging
from routine inspections to complex, plant-wide asset integrity management and
assessments. These mission critical solutions enhance our customers’ ability
to comply with governmental safety and environmental regulations, extend the
useful life of their assets, increase productivity, minimize repair costs, manage
risk and avoid catastrophic disasters. Given the role our solutions play in
ensuring the safe and efficient operation of infrastructure, we have historically
provided a majority of our services to our customers on a regular, recurring
basis. We serve a global customer base of companies with asset-intensive infrastructure,
including companies in the oil and gas (downstream, midstream, upstream and
petrochemical), power generation (natural gas, fossil, nuclear, alternative,
renewable, and transmission and distribution), public infrastructure, chemicals,
commercial aerospace and defense, transportation, primary metals and metalworking,
pharmaceutical/biotechnology and food processing industries and research and
engineering institutions.
Our asset protection solutions continuously evolve over time as we combine
the disciplines of NDT, DT, PdM, MI, engineering & consulting services and
data analysis and enterprise inspection data management software to provide
value to our customers. The foundation of our business is NDT, which is the
examination of assets without impacting current and future usefulness or impairing
the integrity of these assets. The ability to inspect infrastructure assets
and not interfere with their operating performance makes NDT a highly attractive
alternative to many traditional intrusive inspection techniques, which may require
dismantling equipment or shutting down a plant, mill or site. Our MI services
are a systematic engineering-based approach to developing best practices for
ensuring the on-going integrity and safety of equipment and industrial facilities.
MI services involve conducting an inventory of infrastructure assets, developing
and implementing inspection and maintenance procedures, training personnel in
executing these procedures and managing inspections, testing and assessments
of customer assets. By assisting customers in implementing MI programs we enable
them to identify gaps between existing and desired practices, find and track
deficiencies and degradations to be corrected and establish quality assurance
standards for fabrication, engineering and installation of infrastructure assets.
We believe our MI services improve plant safety and reliability and regulatory
compliance, and in so doing reduce maintenance costs. Our solutions also incorporate
comprehensive Risk Based
Inspection (RBI) data analysis from our proprietary asset protection software
to provide customers with detailed, integrated and cost-effective solutions
that rate the risks of alternative maintenance approaches and recommend actions
in accordance with consensus industry codes and standards and help to establish
and support key performance indicators (KPI’s) to ensure continued safe
and economic operations.
We differentiate ourselves by delivering these solutions under our “One
Source” umbrella, utilizing a proven systematic method that creates a
closed loop life cycle for addressing continuous asset protection and improvement.
Under this business model, customers outsource their inspection to us on a “run
and maintain” basis. As a global asset protection leader, we provide a
comprehensive range of solutions that includes:
traditional and advanced outsourced NDT services conducted by our technicians,
mechanical integrity assessments, above-ground storage tank inspection, pipeline
inspection and American Petroleum Institute (API) visual inspections and PdM
program development;
destructive testing (DT), a definitive discipline in material testing, taking
specimens through to mechanical failure while examining a host of factors. Hardness,
stiffness and strength are a few key indicators drawn from destructive tests
per customer specifications. DT is a strength of our subsidiary, Mistras-GMA
in Germany, which specializes in an array of destructive testing applications
utilized throughout the materials selection and approval process in the aerospace,
automotive, chemical, oil and gas and power generation industries.
advanced asset protection solutions, in most cases involving proprietary acoustic
emission (AE), digital radiography, infrared, wireless and/or automated ultrasonic
inspections and sensors, which are operated by our highly trained technicians;
a proprietary and customized portfolio of software products for testing and
analyzing data captured in real-time by our technicians and sensors, including
advanced features such as pattern recognition and neural networks;
enterprise software and relational databases to store and analyze inspection
data, comparing it to prior operations and testing of similar assets, industrial
standards and specific risk conditions, such as use with highly flammable or
corrosive materials, and developing asset integrity management plans based on
risk-based inspection that specify an optimal schedule for the testing, maintenance
and retirement of assets;
on-line monitoring systems that provide secure web-based remote or on-site asset
inspection, real-time reports and analysis of plant or enterprise-wide structural
integrity data, comparison of integrity data to our library of historical inspection
data and analysis to better assess structural integrity and provide alerts for
and prioritize future inspections and maintenance;
in-house testing services: Mistras’ in-house inspection services provide
cost-effective, efficient solutions that improve the integrity and lifespan
of critical assets featuring a dynamic suite of testing and inspection services.
With a network of 15 in-house laboratories, Mistras provides a one-stop shop
for traditional (NDT), advanced non-destructive testing (ANDT), and destructive
testing (DT) of materials and fabricated structures by offering a complete inspection
package — from preparation and production all the way to post-processing.
These capabilities are available through our state-of-the-art testing equipment
and expertise in our grid of in-house testing laboratories across the U.S.A.,
Canada and Europe;
full range of engineering consulting services to the downstream and renewable
energy sectors that includes plant operations support covering both process
and equipment technologies; project planning, management and execution; expert
testimony and technical training; and
ultra high pressure water blasting & painting in place of sand blasting
used on off shore oil and gas platforms and land based refinery and chemical
fixed equipment, and offering NDT inspection while in post cleaning mode.
Our labs hold a wide variety of certifications that allow them to perform inspections
to meet or exceed stringent regulatory requirements, such as: NADCAP, AS9100/ISO-9001,
FAA Repair Station and ITAR/EAR. With these certifications comes a comprehensive
range of approvals from prime contractors of major projects, the military, and
internationally renowned products and systems manufactures from aerospace to
nuclear energy; transportation to petrochemical industries.
We offer our customers a customized package of services, products and systems,
or our enterprise software and other niche high-value products on a stand-alone
basis. For example, customers can purchase most of our sensors and accompanying
software to integrate with their own systems, or they can purchase a complete
turn-key solution, including installation, monitoring and assessment services.
Importantly, however, we do not sell certain of our advanced and proprietary
software and other products as stand-alone offerings; instead, we embed them
in our comprehensive service offerings to protect our investment in intellectual
property while providing an added value which generates a substantial source
of recurring revenues.
Asset protection is a large and rapidly growing industry that consists of NDT
inspection, DT inspection, PdM and MI services and inspection data management
and analysis. NDT plays a crucial role in assuring the operational and structural
integrity and reliability of critical infrastructure without compromising the
usefulness of the tested materials or equipment. The evolution of NDT services,
in combination with broader industry trends, including increased asset utilization
and aging of infrastructure, the desire by companies to extend the useful life
of their existing infrastructure, new construction projects, enhanced government
regulation and the shortage of certified NDT professionals, have made NDT an
integral and increasingly outsourced part of many asset-intensive industries.
Well-publicized industrial and public infrastructure failures and accidents
such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the I-35W
Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minnesota, and a number of recent refinery
accidents continues to raise the level of safety and environmental awareness
of regulators, while owners and operators are recognizing the benefits that
asset protection solutions can provide.
Historically, NDT solutions predominantly used qualitative testing methods aimed
primarily at detecting defects in the tested materials. This methodology, which
we categorize as “traditional NDT,” is typically labor intensive
and, as a result, considerably dependent upon the availability and skill level
of the certified technicians, engineers and scientists performing the inspection
services. The traditional NDT market has been highly fragmented, with a significant
number of small vendors providing inspection services to divisions of companies
or local governments situated in close proximity to the vendor’s field
inspection engineers and technicians. The trend over the past several years,
however, is for customers to look for a select few vendors capable of providing
a wider spectrum of asset protection solutions for global infrastructure that
we call “one source”. This shift in underlying demand, which began
in the early 1990s and has accelerated more recently, has contributed to a transition
from traditional NDT solutions to more advanced solutions that employ automated
digital sensor technologies and accompanying enterprise software, allowing for
the effective capture, storage, analysis and reporting of inspection and engineering
results electronically and in digital formats. These advanced techniques, taken
together with advances in wired and wireless communication and information technologies,
have further enabled the development of remote monitoring systems, asset-management
and predictive maintenance capabilities and other data analytics and management.
We believe that as advanced asset protection solutions continue to gain acceptance
among asset-intensive organizations, those vendors offering broad, complete
and integrated solutions, scalable operations and a global footprint will have
a distinct competitive advantage. Moreover, we believe that vendors that are
able to effectively deliver both advanced solutions and data analytics, by virtue
of their access to customers’ data, create a significant barrier to entry
for competitors, and lead the opportunity to create significant recurring revenues.
Mistras operates in a highly competitive, but fragmented market. Our primary
competitors are divisions of large companies, and many of our other competitors
remain to be small independent local companies which may be, limited to a specific
product, service or technology and focused on a niche market or geographic region.
We focus our strategic sales, marketing and product development efforts on a
range of infrastructure-intensive based industries and governmental authorities.
In general, our largest markets in broad terms are energy-related infrastructure
where we perform fitness for service inspection and engineering based services
on fixed and rotating assets.