Chemical Processing

Heavy Equipment for Extreme Corrosive & Thermal Environments

The chemical and petrochemical processing industries operate under some of the most punishing conditions imaginable. Equipment must reliably handle highly reactive acids, volatile solvents, extreme operating pressures, and severe temperature fluctuations—all without compromising safety or production continuity.

At Openex Metal Fabrication, we bring decades of specialized metallurgical knowledge and massive manufacturing scale to the chemical sector. Our 180-acre facility is perfectly equipped to build colossal, heavy-wall processing equipment that complies strictly with ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC) Section VIII, Div 1 & 2 standards.

Custom Processing Equipment We Build

Chemical Reactors & Autoclaves

We fabricate extreme heavy-wall reactors designed to contain exothermic chemical reactions safely. Our heavy CNC machining ensures flawless concentricity for agitator and mixer mounts, while our heat-treating furnaces ensure full thermal stress relief.

Distillation Columns & Towers

Openex has the massive crane capacity and ceiling clearance required to fabricate, weld, and assemble exceptionally tall fractionation columns and stripping towers. We flawlessly install internal trays, packing supports, and massive liquid distributors.

Heat Exchangers & Condensers

We specialize in TEMA-compliant shell and tube heat exchangers. Combining our massive gantry CNC machines for tube sheet deep-hole drilling and automated GTAW (TIG) orbital welding for tube-to-tubesheet joints guarantees leak-proof integrity.

High-Pressure Storage Vessels

Heavy plate rolling and extreme penetration submerged arc welding (SAW) allows us to manufacture large-scale containment vessels, spherical tanks, and cryogenic storage solutions for compressed gases and hazardous liquids.

Exotic Alloy & Corrosion-Resistant Expertise

In chemical processing, standard carbon steel is rarely enough. Handling these reactive metals requires completely isolated clean-room welding areas to prevent cross-contamination. Our welding engineers develop certified Weld Procedure Specifications (WPS) for:

• Austenitic Stainless Steels 304L, 316L, 317L, 321, 347 (for general acidic/caustic handling).
• Duplex & Super Duplex 2205, 2507 (High strength, resistance to chloride stress corrosion cracking).
• High-Nickel Alloys Inconel®, Hastelloy®, Monel® (for the most extreme thermal/corrosive reactions).
• Explosive Clad Plates Bonding exotic corrosion barriers (like Titanium) to structural Carbon Steel backings.

ASME Quality & NDT Inspection

Chemical processing vessels represent absolute critical-path infrastructure. To ensure safety, our quality assurance department performs extensive Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) to verify 100% full-penetration integrity.

• ✔ Radiographic Testing (RT) and Ultrasonic Testing (UT) on structural welds.
• ✔ Positive Material Identification (PMI) on all incoming raw exotic alloys.
• ✔ Hydrostatic testing and dye penetrant inspection.
• ✔ ASME U, U2, and R stamp compliant fabrication processing.