Nearly seventy years servicing the oil and gas industry, Frank’s Casing Crew is the oldest tubular businesses on the Gulf Coast. Starting out in the garage of Frank Mosing with only one casing crew, Frank’s has grown from a small casing business into a multi-service tubular company that provides equipment and personnel to the industry. The business has 18 offices in the United States, and 28 international sites under its sister company, Frank’s International. Frank’s employs more than 2,000 people, with 400 of these at headquarters in Lafayette, Louisiana.

To stay on top of innovations in the oil and gas industry, Frank’s chose to embark upon designing and building the world’s first 1250 ton elevator and 1250 ton spider. "These two tools allow for deeper drilling where existing casing tools can no longer be safely utilized," said Special Operations Group Manager Jeremy Angelle. In order for Frank’s to better explain the complex design of the machinery to potential manufacturers, Angelle needed a scaled down prototype. He called MEPOL for assistance.

From three dimensional drawings of the tools, Project Director Rebecca Scherff of the Polymer Services Division was able to build a 4" x 6" x 1.5" prototype for Frank’s. "Having the prototype in our engineering meetings worked out extremely well," said Angelle. "Even with the 3D drawings, some design elements are just easier to explain with a replica sitting right in front of us to touch and look at."

With the prototype made, Frank’s reduced its time to market by several months saving them approximately $125,000. They have completed two 1250 elevator and spider units, both of which are in use in the Gulf of Mexico. Additional units are currently being manufactured. And although the market for this type of deep well drilling is fairly small, other product ideas have come out of the research and development of the 1250 line.

"One of the most important factors in staying competitive is reducing your time to market with new products. Working with Rebecca at MEPOL helped us achieve our goal by providing our parts in a very efficient and timely manner, which helped us communicate with machine shops more effectively while reducing costly errors in the machining process."

Jeremy Angelle,
Special Operations Group Manager