If you’re specifying a rubber-lined or corrosion-resistant tank, one of the first decisions is who builds it. You can hire a fabricator and a separate lining applicator, or you can work with a turnkey supplier that fabricates, lines, and cures the tank in one shop.
Here’s how the two approaches compare, and why Moon Fabricating keeps both under one roof in Kokomo, Indiana.
The problem with splitting fabrication and lining
When a plant needs a tank to store acid, slurry, or anything else that is corrosive to steel, the usual process involves two companies. One fabricates the tank. Another applies the corrosion-resistant rubber lining or coatings. Somewhere in between, the tank gets loaded on a truck, drawings change hands, and schedules have to line up.
This approach results in additional logistics, scheduling, and warranty responsibility. The vessel must be trucked from the fabricator’s shop to the lining applicator’s shop and then on to the plant, and every handoff adds freight, handling, time, and risk of damage. Two suppliers also means two schedules and two warranties, with no single company responsible for the finished, lined tank.
Most of the time that works. But when a lining fails early or a seam doesn’t hold, the question of who is responsible can get complicated fast. If problems arise with the schedule or warranty, the fabricator points to the liner. The liner points to the fabricator. The plant is left waiting.
Moon Fabricating was built to take the finger-pointing off the table. As a turnkey supplier, Moon fabricates the tank and applies the corrosion-resistant lining, delivering finished, lined equipment under one contract, one schedule, and one warranty.
Turnkey: one supplier, one point of responsibility
At Moon, one company takes responsibility for the whole job: fabrication, surface preparation, corrosion-resistant lining, curing, and installation. Design, fabrication, lining, field installation, and repair all run through one company in Kokomo, Indiana.
- “When we build the tank and line it ourselves, there’s nobody else to point at. If something isn’t right, it’s ours to fix, and we fix it before it ever leaves the shop.”
For customers, that means one set of drawings, one schedule, and one phone call when questions come up. Keeping fabrication and lining together improves quality, communications, scheduling, and logistics: no shipping between shops, no handoff of drawings and specifications, and one schedule managed by the team doing the work. Purdue Energy’s utilities engineer put it this way in a testimonial on our site: sourcing completed tanks from one supplier, CAD drawings included, saved his team time and effort compared with splitting the work between two
Two suppliers vs. one turnkey supplier
| Fabricator + separate liner | Turnkey (Moon Fabricating) | |
| Shipping | Tank is trucked from the fabricator to the lining shop, then to the plant | Ships once, finished and lined |
| Drawings and specs | Handed off between two companies | Stay with one team from start to finish |
| Schedule | Two schedules to coordinate | One schedule, managed by the team doing the work |
| Warranty | Two warranties; no one owns the finished, lined tank | One warranty on the finished, lined tank |
| Quality control | Welding and lining prep done by different companies | Welding, surface prep, lining, and cure under one quality process |
| When problems come up | Fabricator and liner point at each other | One company is responsible for fixing it |
Lined and cured under the same roof
Corrosive chemicals attack bare steel quickly, and the lining is all that stands between them and the tank wall. A rubber lining is only as strong as its bond to the steel underneath. That bond comes from vulcanization: curing the rubber under heat and pressure so it fuses to the tank wall.
Moon cures its linings in a 12-foot by 40-foot steam vulcanizer, on vessels the company fabricated itself. Because the tank never leaves the building between welding and curing, the surface prep, lining, and cure all happen under one quality process. There is no truck ride between the fabricator and the lining applicator. (For a deeper look at how the cure works, see our article on rubber vulcanization for tank and pipe liners.)
- “Having the vulcanizer here changes how we work. We know exactly how the steel was prepped, because we prepped it. That’s a big part of why our linings last.”
Moon is also an approved corrosion-resistant lining applicator for Blair Rubber Co. and Polycorp Ltd., and offers fiberglass (FRP) linings, abrasion-resistant linings, and specialty coatings alongside rubber.
Make it right before the next step
Controlling every stage also means checking every stage. Welds are tested before lining begins. Linings are inspected before a tank ships. If something isn’t right, the work stops there until it is.
One longtime customer, consultant Jerry Cogar of Acitec, has recommended Moon tanks for more than 20 years. In his words, Moon handles everything from fabrication and weld testing to the finished liner, and makes problems right before moving to the next step.
- “We’d rather catch a problem on our shop floor than have a customer find it in their plant. Every step gets checked before the next one starts.”
More than a century of building it right
Moon started as a custom steel shop in Kokomo in 1923. Today the company works from a 60,000-square-foot facility with cranes rated to 60,000 pounds, plate rolling, automated submerged arc welding, and CNC plasma burning.
That capacity covers a wide range of work:
- Materials: carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium, aluminum, and specialty alloys
- Equipment: process and storage tanks, pickling tanks, silos, exhaust stacks, emission ductwork, and furnace components
- Industries: steel, chemical processing, power generation, mining and minerals, corn processing, and surface finishing
The work doesn’t end at the shop door. Moon’s field service crews handle installation, inspection, repair, and rubber relining on site.
- “A lot has changed since 1923, but our approach isn’t one of those things. Build it to last, stand behind it, and be there when the customer needs us.”
Frequently asked questions
What is a turnkey tank fabricator?
A turnkey tank fabricator builds the tank and applies the corrosion-resistant lining itself, delivering finished, lined equipment under one contract, one schedule, and one warranty. Moon Fabricating in Kokomo, Indiana, works this way.
Why does it matter if the same company fabricates and lines a tank?
It removes the shipping between shops, the handoff of drawings and specifications, and the split warranty. One company is responsible for the finished tank, so there’s no question of who fixes a problem.
How are rubber tank linings cured?
Rubber linings are cured through vulcanization, which uses heat and pressure to bond the rubber to the steel. Moon cures its linings in a 12-foot by 40-foot steam vulcanizer in its Kokomo shop.
What types of tank linings does Moon Fabricating apply?
Rubber linings, fiberglass (FRP) linings, abrasion-resistant linings, and specialty coatings. Moon is an approved applicator for Blair Rubber Co. and Polycorp Ltd.
Can Moon reline an existing tank on site?
Yes. Moon’s field service crews handle installation, inspection, repair, and rubber relining at the customer’s facility.
What industries does Moon Fabricating serve?
Steel production, chemical processing, power generation, mining and minerals, corn processing, and surface finishing.
Where is Moon Fabricating located?
Moon Fabricating is at 700 W Morgan St. in Kokomo, Indiana, and has been building custom steel equipment there since 1923.
Ready to talk through your next project?
Whether you need a new process tank, a rubber-lined storage vessel, or a reline during your next shutdown, Moon can take it from raw steel to finished lining as a turnkey supplier: one contract, one schedule, one warranty, and one team accountable for the result.
Request a quote or call (765) 459-4194 to talk with our team.