The Glory Days of Gunite

Go back in time to the beginnings of sprayed concrete, first known as gunite and today Shotcrete.

Mesa has always depended on engineering innovations to drive its business growth. Read about the impact of Mesa's first chief engineer.

A History of Quality

Mesa Industries was founded in 1967 by Ray Sexton, a petroleum industry professional who had a vision of a multi-faceted company that could fill a niche in the market. The company was incorporated a year later in California comprised of two operating divisions, Mesa Rubber Company and Gunite Supply and Equipment Company. Mesa Industries was born.The industries served by these two divisions have changed over the years but the general makeup of the equipment and products has largely remained the same. Mesa Rubber Company manufactures products and environmental protection equipment for aboveground storage tanks, such as the tanks found in petroleum refineries and gasoline storage terminals. Gunite Supply and Equipment serves specialty contractors who spray concrete on a surface to build structures such as swimming pools, tunnels, parks and zoos. This process is called gunite or shotcrete. Mesa Rubber and Gunite, as these divisions are often called, found a stable customer base beginning on the west coast but eventually needed to extend their reach.

In the 1970's Mesa Industries opened a new sales office in Houston, Texas. Here, the company could focus on the need for its products at the many refiners located around the gulf coast. Houston also proved to be a strategic location for the gunite industry, given the amount of pool builders in the surrounding areas. After expanding the market for Mesa's products across the country and internationally, Ray Sexton saw the need to control the equipment manufacturing source for the machines it had been supplying to its gunite customers. 1n 1974, Mesa Industries acquired Airplaco Equipment Company, a manufacturer of gunite, shotcrete and grout pumps originally established in the 1940's. At about this time, Mesa Industries opened its third location in Cincinnati, Ohio where Airplaco production is centrally located.

The Mesa Rubber division branched off in the 1990's forming what today is known as Mesa Laminated Fabrics (MLF). The MLF division produces laminated materials for a variety of applications, including environmental protection, medical, military and other specialized industries. MLF remains at the forefront of laminated fabric technology by continually developing new features, such as vapor barriers, fire resistance, U/V protection and incomparable abrasion resistance. Today Mesa continues to grow under the leadership of a second generation. The markets that Mesa serves are always expanding as the company takes advantage of the new technologies available to a world class American manufacturer.

MesaFlex: the Original

MesaFlex is Mesa's classic design for flexible piping used by Aboveground Storage Tanks. MesaFlex was designed to offer oil & gas companies a means of draining rain water from the roof of a storage tank. Little has changed in the MesaFlex design over the years and it is still a popular flexible pipe assembly in use today.