VT Halter Marine Inc., held a dedication ceremony on April 6 for its new state-of-the-art blast and paint facility at its Pascagoula, Miss. shipyard that will allow ship sections to be prepared, blasted and painted in a controlled environment. The ceremony included a keynote speech by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
“The installation of this new blast and paint facility is to incorporate cutting edge technologies in our marine construction programs. We are now able to apply a diverse range of protective coatings regardless of the weather conditions,” Rob Mullins, VT Halter’s CEO, said in a statement announcing the opening.
The ceremony included a keynote speech given by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. VT Halter Marine photo
Located at the northeast corner of VT Halter Marine’s shipyard, the facility consists of a large 304'x120' main building with adjacent spaces for blasting, and painting of small parts of large ship sections with dual independent grit recovery, and cleaning processes to enable re-use of abrasive media. It can accommodate ship sections as large as 105'x80'x40', weighing up to 500 tons each. The facility is also designed for 24/7 operation in all weather conditions, and utilizes 100% LED lighting to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint.
VT Halter, a VT Systems company, is involved in the design and construction of medium-sized ships in the U.S. The shipyard designs, builds and repairs a wide variety of vessels such as patrol vessels, oil recovery vessels, oil cargo vessels, ferries, logistic support vessels and survey vessels.
